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A uthor Kris Newby is described on the book jacket of Bitten as "an award-winning science writer at Stanford University" and before that "a technology writer for Apple." The book is in part a history of her own struggle with Lyme disease after a tick bite near Martha's Vineyard Island, Mass., in 2002. However, in publishing Bitten, she's also making a far more provocative claim: that the increase in tick-borne disease is not merely an accident of nature. As a public health nurse who has spent a good deal of time comparing Lyme dis- ease diagnoses to the standards of the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), I take a keen interest in this sub- ject. The disease is common in my area and is obviously a matter of public health concern. Tick-Borne Diseases Bitten follows the increase in the tick- borne illness that seemed to begin in Lyme, Conn., in 1968. Although it's the best-known, Lyme disease is only one of many tick-borne pathogens now found throughout the United States, which also include anaplasmosis, Borrelia mayonii, Powassan virus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tick-borne relapsing fever and 364D rickettsiosis (to name just a few). The spirochete that causes Lyme dis- ease, Borrelia burgdorferi, is named for Willy Burgdorfer, a scientist who began studying ticks in Basel, Switzerland, in 1948. Burgdorfer came to the U.S. on a one-year fellowship at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory, part of the U.S. Public Health Service. His work with ticks and the dis- eases they carry is now known worldwide. Also well-known is the fact that many people now fear they suffer from Lyme disease — with symptoms such as fever, joint pain, headaches, facial paralysis or cardiac arrhythmia — although the IDSA and insurance companies limit diagnosis and treatment to only those cases exhibit- ing specific sets of symptoms. This frustrates many sufferers, who feel their chronic illness is being unfairly dis- missed and ignored. A particular sore point for the author is the reliance on a lab test for Lyme that Newby insists is neither spe- cific nor accurate. A Cold War Accident? Having dealt with patients who believe they have chronic Lyme disease (see my review of Porochista Khakpour's 2018 book Sick: A Memoir, which you can find at WorkingNurse.com), I've heard many of these claims before. Much less familiar, but very interesting, is Newby's claim that the real cause of Lyme disease is a biological weapon. Newby asserts that the disease is actu- ally caused by a pathogen that Burgdorfer helped to develop during the early years of the Cold War (when both sides were secretly investigating the possibilities of germ warfare) and that the biogen some- how escaped into the Northeast. I leave it to the reader to decide just how likely this scenario is. I will say the book is thoroughly researched: Newby used Freedom of Information Act requests to her advantage, there are pages of foot- notes and documentation, and she actually interviewed Burgdorfer. I came to this story with great skepti- cism and finished it paying close attention to what she was saying. Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons by Kris Newby (Harper Wave, 2019). ______________________________________ Christine Contillo, RN, BSN, PHN, is a public health nurse with more than 40 years of experience, ranging from infants to geriatrics. She enjoys volun- teering for medical missions. WN September 7–October 5, 2020 22 Working Nurse l WorkingNurse.com BOOK CLUB by Christine Contillo, RN, BSN, PHN Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons By Kris Newby A provocative take on an insect-borne infection I leave it to the reader to decide how likely the germ warfare scenario is. I will say the book is thoroughly researched. DISMISSED AND IGNORED Lyme is one of many tick-borne pathogens that inflict the sufferer with a cluster of chronic and often frustrating symptoms. Kris Newby