the green issue Photo by Heather Jackson Call of the Congo Kate Jackson has survived a cobra bite and a rare tropical disease while building the only online database of the snakes of Western and Central Africa. her research will save lives. And it could prevent mining companies from destroying the Congo. Bye dwa r d weinm a n Four days after herpetologist Kate Jack- deal, what struck her down after return- remain paralyzed forever, one-third die son first visited the Republic of the Congo, ing to theunited States cannot be casu- and one-third recover,” Jackson said. “This a civil war broke out. on subsequent trips ally brushed aside. kept me out of the field for a couple of to the former French colony to research Whitman had just hired Jackson when years.” the snakes of Western and Central Africa, her legs stopped working. After numerous It’s difficult to keep Jackson out of the she weathered a team mutiny, suffered medical tests, an infectious disease spe- field. Before completely healing from her from malaria and had to be medevacked cialist at the university of Washington in- mysterious virus, Jackson returned to the to neighboring Cameroon. formed Jackson that, while in the Congo, Congo in 2010 for the fifth time, her legs “In 2006 I got bit by a cobra, but aside she had become infected by an unnamed supported by bulky braces. There, she dug from that the trip was fine,” Jackson said tropical virus that left her legs paralyzed. in the muck and the mire, searching for while sitting in her office, two Rubber Thankfully, her nerves slowly regenerated, serpents in the Congolese swamps. Boas slithering through her right hand and two years later she could finally walk After all she’s endured studying rep- into a tangled knot. without crutches or leg braces. tiles that make most of us shudder, why While the assistant professor of biology “The doctor told me that one-third of does she risk her health traveling to back- might dismiss a cobra attack as no big the people who contract this type of virus water jungles to research snakes? 18 Whitman Magazine
Whitman Magazine July 2012
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