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

2021 William E. Colby Award Finalist 

Inside the Hot Zone is an insider’s account of one of the most dangerous workplaces on earth: the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. A physician, leading biodefense expert, and retired army colonel, Mark G. Kortepeter recounts his decision-making during medical crises that occurred inside this biological warfare defense research facility.

During Kortepeter’s seven and a half years in leadership at USAMRIID, the United States experienced some of the most serious threats in modern germ warfare history, 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. Inside the Hot Zone is a sobering eye-opener, as Kortepeter describes in gripping detail how he and his USAMRIID colleagues navigated threats from Ebola to anthrax and bioterrorism.

As both a doctor and an army veteran who has worked inside the nation’s largest containment laboratory dedicated to biological warfare defense, Kortepeter shares his personal perspective on the dangers and uncertainty of bioweapons and unchecked medical emergencies.

Mark G. Kortepeter is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a retired army colonel with more than twenty-five years of service. He is an expert in germ warfare defense and has held multiple leadership roles at the nation’s largest containment laboratory dedicated to biological warfare defense, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).