Honoring Dr. William H. Foege

In January 2026, William H. Foege, a former Centers for Disease and Control Prevention director who helped develop the smallpox vaccine strategy that led to the eradication of the disease, died at age 89. In honor of his memory, the Milbank Memorial Fund is pleased to offer a free excerpt from his book, House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox, originally published by the University of California Press and the Milbank Memorial Fund in 2011 as part of the California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public series. The book is available for purchase at https://www.ucpress.edu/books/house-on-fire/paper.

About the Book

A story of courage and risk-taking, House on Fire tells how smallpox, a disease that killed, blinded, and scarred millions over centuries of human history, was completely eradicated in a spectacular triumph of medicine and public health. Part autobiography, part mystery, the story is told by a man who was one of the architects of a radical vaccination scheme that became a key strategy in ending the horrible disease when it was finally contained in India. In House on Fire, Foege describes his own experiences in public health and details the remarkable program that involved people from countries around the world in pursuit of a single objective—eliminating smallpox forever. Rich with the details of everyday life, as well as a few adventures, House on Fire gives an intimate sense of what it is like to work on the ground in some of the world’s most impoverished countries—and tells what it is like to contribute to programs that really do change the world.