The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston is an intriguing book that discusses the anthrax terrorist attacks after 9/11 and how smallpox could become a future bioterrorism threat to the world . The book provides a brief history of smallpox disease, including details of an epidemic in Germany in 1970. The disease was eradicated in 1979 thanks to the World Health Organization's aggressive vaccination program. After the virus was no longer a cure, the World Health Organization stopped recommending smallpox vaccination. At the same time, vaccine supplies have been reduced to save money. The virus was locked up in two laboratories, one in the United States and one in Russia. However, some believe that the smallpox virus exists elsewhere. Dr. Peter Jahrling and a team of scientists at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland became concerned that terrorists had access to the smallpox virus and planned to alter the strain to become more resistant. These doctors conducted experiments on smallpox to discover more effective vaccines in case the virus was released. Preparation for a major epidemic is discussed, as well as the ease with which smallpox can be bioengineered. The Demon in the Freezer is divided into eight sections. It begins with the shocking details surrounding the sudden death of Robert Stevens, just three weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001. An autopsy showed that Mr. Stevens died of inhalation anthrax. Subsequent anthrax illnesses among people exposed to anthrax-laced letters frightened the nation. Some thought that the letters might also contain smallpox, but fortunately this was not the case. “Only eighteen cases of inhalation anthrax have occurred in the United States in the last hundred years, and the last reported case was twenty-three years earlier” (5). It is no wonder that people were alarmed by the threat of a serious anthrax epidemic. The book moves on to the distressing story of Peter Los in 1970 in West Germany who fell ill with smallpox. After ten days he was admitted to hospital but the medical staff did not realize that he had smallpox, which is highly contagious. Preston provides vivid descriptions of the disease and how it ravages the body. Los survived his illness, but caused an epidemic that killed many others who had been exposed to him. “Today, those planning a smallpox emergency cannot get the image of the Meschede hospital out of their minds.