Lyme disease warrior Pamela Weintraub to speak at The Miriam

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The Miriam Hospital Women’s Association is delighted that Pamela Weintraub, author of “Cure Unknown, Inside the Lyme Epidemic,” will be the guest speaker at the group’s program on May 1.

Weintraub, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, is the author of 16 books and has been featured on dozens of major radio shows.  “Cure Unknown” was the winner of the American Medical Writer’s Association book award (2009) and has won community service awards from the Lyme Disease Association. 

As noted on the book jacket of “Cure Unknown,” Weintraub, a science journalist, thought she had found the answer to symptoms that had been plaguing her family for years when her oldest son tested positive for Lyme disease. Instead, she found that she had stepped into a medically controversial area, with more questions than answers on the cause of the infection, the length and type of treatment, and the kind of medical practitioners that patients need.

On one side of the fight, the scientists who first studied Lyme described a disease, transmitted by deer ticks, that is hard to catch but easy to cure, no matter how advanced the case. On the other side, rebel doctors insist that Lyme and a “soup of co-infections” cause a complicated spectrum of illnesses, often dramatically different from and far more difficult to treat than the disease described by the original researchers.

As patients struggled to find answers, Weintraub found that once treatable infections became chronic.

These differing views hit close to home: In the Rhode Island Department of Health alone, there are biostatisticians on opposite sides regarding the use of antibiotics to treat Lyme disease.

Weintraub will detail some of her personal experiences with this quandary, as well as tapping into the science.

May is Lyme Disease Awareness month. May is also when New Englanders begin to spend a lot of time outdoors, where ticks lurk. 

Department of Health workers will attend the May 1 program to share prevention tips and  distribute handouts.

Weintraub is the health and psychology editor of the website Aeon, a charity “committed to the spread of knowledge and a cosmopolitan worldview,” and editor in chief of the recently relaunched OMNI Magazine and a series of book-a-zines on psychology, health and science. She was formerly executive editor of Discover Magazine and has reported on science for national media for over 25 years.

Kaja Perina, editor in chief of Psychology Today, called “Cure Unknown” the definitive book about Lyme disease.

The May 1 meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Sopkin Auditorium at The Miriam Hospital, 164 Summit Ave., Providence. The program is free but RSVP by April 20, at vickie.scott@lifespan.org, as space is limited. Light refreshments will be served and valet parking is provided.

The Miriam Hospital Women’s Association raises funds for the hospital and provides educational programs for the community. Marianne Litwin, Sherry Cohen, Marilyn Myrow, Barbara Horovitz Brown and Cynthia Schwartz organized this event. To join or learn more about the organization, contact Vickie Scott at vickie.scott@lifespan.org or 401-793-2520.

BARBARA  HOROVITS BROWN is co-vice president of program development for The Miriam Hospital Women’s Association.

TMHWA, Lyme Disease,