Time’s Person of the Year is not a single person, but rather a group of courageous disease fighters. For 2014 Time has named Ebola fighters as the person or rather people of the year.
Thousands of men and women are risking their lives to fight the deadly disease in Africa and to cure patients who make their way to America. Many of those disease fighters are battling an environment in which citizens do not believe in or even moderately trust Western medicine.
Since the outbreak in West Africa began, Ebola fighters have included scientists, nurses, doctors, and everyday citizens. Instead of being equipped with state of the art hazmat suits, they battle the disease dressed in rather low-tech outfits that only moderately protect them from the deadly Ebola virus.
Before the outbreak Liberia was operating just 4 ambulances to service a population of 4.1 million people. Since the outbreak, many citizens have accepted jobs making as little as $1,000 per month to collect and dispose of highly contagious bodies. 400 health care workers have contracted Ebola and 230 of them have died because of their decision to help their sick and dying peers.
TIME’s Person of the Year for 2014 couldn’t have found a more deserving group of people to honor. Some doctors, such as Dr Stella Adadevoh at the First Consultant Hospital in Lagos refused to let a man leave, restraining him and alerting the health ministry. She helped contain the virus, but later died from her valiant efforts.
In many cases volunteers are attempting to stop Ebola before it reaches certain areas by setting up makeshift education centers.
This isn’t just a fight for locals. The World Health Organization has setup various temporary bases of operations to strategize ways in which they can fight Ebola.
The fight against Ebola is far from over and many citizens in the country and the group Doctors Without Borders continue to battle the disease.
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Be sure to check out some of the amazing stories from Ebola fighters on TIME.
