“Effortlessly transmits both the facts and the fascination of a bad infectious outbreak...[a] portrait of contagion at the highest possible magnification.” —The New York Times

“A touching and compelling account. The Lassa Ward brings to life the challenges and rewards that dedicated development workers face daily around the world.” —Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel laureate in economics

“Required reading for all medical students and anyone looking for a little armchair medical adventure.” —Library Journal

“Donaldson started out as an earnest, well-meaning American medical student, off on a great African adventure. He came of age in the middle of a raging epidemic, civil war, and hideous poverty, discovering a humanity few Americans ever experience. Donaldson has bared his soul, offering a lesson that should be required reading for every doctor-in-training.” —Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health

“A potent mix of travel memoir, coming-of-age narrative and medical mystery. Donaldson's experiences treating a frighteningly infectious and often deadly hemorrhagic fever, the strength of his West African patients, and his own grave illness bring him to a contemplation of mortality, poverty, civil war, and medicine as it is practiced in the first and third worlds.” —Jo Perry, BookBrowse.com