This takes a look at Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses and blames climate change, among other things, for the increasing prevalence of ticks and tick-borne disease.

The author doesn't get into treatment options much in this book, except to complain that the United States, and therefore other countries, tend to view the use of long-term antibiotics as purely negative, though it helps many people manage their illness.

I learned a few things in this book, which surprised me since I've read a fair amount on the subject already. I always love it when I can learn something more!

There are references to Darwinian evolutionary theory as fact, and at least one instance of profanity used in a direct quote. ( )

In Lyme Mary Beth Pfeiffer makes a powerful case that Lyme disease, along with other tick-borne pathogens, is an epidemic that is proceeding apace, yet not acknowledged as such by the medical establishment.

From a small cluster of victims in mid-70s Connecticut, Lyme disease has exploded to 400,000 infections a year in the USA alone. As climate change increases the geographical area in which ticks can survive, the pathogen is spreading inexorably into areas in which it was formerly unknown.

This is the point where medical conformism clashes with reality. The official line about Lyme disease has been that it is easy to detect, easy to treat and that there is no such thing as long-term Lyme disease. In a spectacular demonstration of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy, anybody who presents with symptoms that contradict this official line is dismissed as obviously not having Lyme disease, even when they have the antibodies in their blood. Furthermore, people who show symptoms in areas where Lyme is not supposed to be present are told they have something else, despite the migration of the ticks. This causes frequent misdiagnosis and delays in treatment, with serious results.

The other disturbing thing is that Lyme conformists are so sure of themselves they do not believe that it is worth allocating research money to Lyme disease, therefore preventing their conclusions from ever being challenged. Lyme patients must fund and publish their own research.

There is a chapter in which Pfeiffer talks about children who presented with Lyme disease being misdiagnosed, with dire results. It is heartbreaking stuff, especially one boy who died after effectively being told he was faking it to get out of school.

There seems little doubt that tick-borne pathogens need the kind of urgent and focused attention that AIDS and the Zika virus got. More and more people in ever-widening areas are going to be bitten by infected ticks. Some will be OK with antibiotic treatments, some will have severe symptoms for the rest of their lives, and some will die. It seems that the only thing that can stop this impending disaster is some kind of Kuhnian paradigm shift among the medical establishment that allows them to take this disease seriously. ( )

I found the premise of the book intriguing, but the book was plagued by poor organization, and disjointed writing. ( )