Inside the Hot Zone: A Soldier on the Front Lines of Biological Warfare

2021 William E. Colby Award Finalist Inside the Hot Zone is a real life medical thriller and insider’s account of one of the scariest workplaces on earth: the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) (a.k.a. the "hot zone"). Retired U.S. Army Col. (Dr.) Mark G. Kortepeter, a leading biodefense expert, recounts some of the most serious threats in modern germ warfare, including the specter of biological weapons during the Iraq War, the anthrax letters sent after 9/11, and a little-known crisis involving a presumed botulism attack on the president of the United States. Inside the Hot Zone is a shocking, frightening eye-opener as Kortepeter describes in gripping detail how he and his USAMRIID colleagues navigated threats related to anthrax, botulism, smallpox, Lassa, and Ebola. The stories are real, but they could just as easily serve as plotlines in popular fiction or Hollywood thrillers. Kortepeter gives the reader a seat at the table as each crisis unfolds, with an unvarnished and personal perspective on the dangers, the drama, the fear, the frustrations, the irony, and the uncertainty he encountered as a physician in the role of “Biodefender."