This is a brilliant, first-hand account of one of humanity's greatest achievements: the eradication of smallpox.

Foege captures the ups and downs of the programme with evocative descriptions of his time in Africa and India. In West Africa he came across 'fetisheurs': the traditional point-of-call for people suffering from smallpox. When business was slow they would use scabs they had collected from smallpox patients to start new outbreaks.

Foege pioneered a surveillance/containment approach to eradicating the disease which was found to be more successful than mass vaccination. It had its critics who, ironically, were bolstered by the effectiveness of the surveillance, which in some endemic states in India were revealing one thousand new cases a day.

The book hits a slight low point in the chapter 'A Gorgeous Coalition', which is essentially a list of colleagues, but is otherwise an exciting read with many vignettes of the personal risks taken and the determination to succeed. And let's face it - it has a very happy ending. ( )

Read this for a paper I was writing for a vaccines development class. I have bad memories of that class which may color my review, so take this review with a grain of salt lol. Gives some interesting insight into the logistics needed to solve the biggest public health campaign ever conducted (eradicating a disease from the earth). Unfortunately, while the issue itself is fascinating, Foege's writing is neither compelling nor emotionally engaging. One chapter is just an extended acknowledgments list (a who's who in the WHO -haha- and CDC, etc.) Too bad-- I wish I could have enjoyed this more.

I try to rate books purely on my personal enjoyment, so my rating says nothing about this read's usefulness. Bottom line: if you are a layperson who is curious about the smallpox eradication effort and you want to learn more, try something else that isn't so dry (I'll update this review if I have any recommendations later on). On the other hand, if you are a public health student/practitioner, I would suggest to give the book a try. It is a fairly quick read and could prove to be a handy reference. ( )