Five people working on the Ebola front line were featured on covers of the magazine.
The stories behind the five Ebola Fighters covers for the #TIMEPOY issue
The award pays tribute to the courage and humanity displayed by the medical teams working in the afflicted areas of Africa that include Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. According to the World Health Organisation more than 17,800 people have been affected and the death toll stands at 6,331.
In announcing the winners Time editor Nancy Gibbs said: “Ebola is a war, and a warning. The global health system is nowhere close to strong enough to keep us safe from infectious disease, and “us” means everyone, not just those in faraway places where this is one threat among many that claim lives every day.
“The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight. For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are TIME’s 2014 Person of the Year.”
Last year’s Time person of the year was Pope Francis.
