Once Bitten - by Charles Hofer (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Snakes are everywhere. People are dying. And two scientists, worlds apart, share one daring idea: that the very thing killing people could also save them: snake venom. This gripping, illustrated true story follows their high-stakes race to turn poison into a lifesaving cure.

"For weeks the monsoon rains pounded the countryside...And now the snakes were everywhere. They were in the markets, the schools, and play areas. They coiled up in corners, hid beneath stairs, and snuck into bedrolls..."

150 years ago, scientific and medical breakthroughs were happening all the time. There were vaccines, there were treatments for all sorts of deadly diseases, and yet hundreds of thousands of people still died from snakebite every year. In Vietnam, in India, in South America, and many other places that did not the access to medicines that richer countries did.

Onto this stage step two brilliant and daring young scientists - Albert Calmette in France, and Vital Brazil in Brazil. They witness the death and destruction caused by human interaction with venomous snakes and they race against time to figure out a cure. Their story takes us from jungles to laboratories, from frustrating trial and error to spectacular success, and still continues to influence science and our world to this very day.

About the Author

Dr. Leslie Boyer is a graduate of Harvard Medical School, a board-certified toxicologist, and the founder of the University of Arizona's Venom Immunochemistry, Pharmacology and Emergency Response (VIPER) Institute. Antivenoms that she has helped to develop benefit humans and animals with venom injury in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Raxenne Maniquiz - Raxenne Maniquiz is a graphic designer and illustrator from the Philippines. Her work depicts images of flora and fauna--mostly the kind endemic to her country--drawn with deep, painterly strokes and brilliant contrasts. These finely textured illustrations appear in brand campaigns, product packaging, apparel design, stationery, and published materials.