Osler's Web

Osler's Web: Inside the Labyrinth of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic is a book written by Hillary Johnson, published in 1996 and reissued in 2006. Kirkus Reviews describes it as "A relentless, meticulous, and highly persuasive exposé by a journalist who spent nine years investigating the medical research establishment's failure to take seriously chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)".

Publisher's synopsis
(This synopsis was provided by the publisher for promotional purposes. For book reviews, please see Links section below.)

For more than a decade a devastating disease has been allowed to spread through our country—unchecked, insufficiently researched, and all but ignored, if not denied, by the medical establishment. In many circles this disease, still known as Yuppie Flu, is dismissed as a psychological aberration. For the nearly two million people who have endured its traumatic and very real debilitating physical effects, however, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is no joke.

Journalist Hillary Johnson delivers a shocking indictment of the medical bureaucracy's unwillingness to protect the public from a disease that attacks 300 out of every 100,000 Americans (fifteen times the rate of the polio epidemic at its height). She explodes every myth about CFS, revealing that its victims represent all income levels and backgrounds, that it may be spread through casual contact, and that fewer than one-fifth of CFS sufferers ever fully recover. Combining heartbreaking stories of the irreversible effects this disease has had on its victims' lives with profiles of the scientists who have dedicated themselves to finding the cause and a cure, this dramatic chronology of a frightening new epidemic offers riveting, indisputable evidence that CFS presents a very real threat and is among the most severe of all diseases known to man.

Media coverage

 * 1996, Osler's Web is included in the 1996 TV segment Sick and Tired - Incline Village Outbreak.
 * 1996, A Chronic Fatigue Cover-Up? (21 April 1996)

Reviews

 * Kirkus
 * Melissa Kaplan's Chronic Neuroimmune Diseases

Links

 * Osler's Web - Amazon (US)
 * Osler's Web - Amazon (UK)
 * Osler's Web - Goodreads
 * Book Official Website