William Herbert Foege M.D., M.P.H.(/ˈfeɪɡiː/; born 1936 in Decorah, Iowa) is an American epidemiologist who is credited with "devising the global strategy that led to the eradication of smallpox in the late 1970s".Foege also "played a central role" in efforts that greatly increased immunization rates in developing countries in the 1980s.His book House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox, published in June 2011, speaks to the triumph of modern science, medicine, and public health over a disease responsible for killing, blinding, and scarring millions over centuries of human history.