Time Magazine Names Ebola Fighters 2014 Person of the Year

Medical workers trying to curb the Ebola virus outbreak have won the TIME's 2014 Person of the Year nomination. They surpassed Ferguson protesters, Russian President Vladimir Putin, acting President of the Iraqi Kurdish Region Masoud Barzani and the founder of Alibaba Group Jack Ma.

MOSCOW, December 10 (Sputnik) – Time magazine chose health workers fighting against the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa as its Person of the Year for 2014 on Wednesday.

"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," the magazine's managing editor Nancy Gibbs said in an article.

The Ebola Fighters are TIME’s Person of the Year for 2014. http://t.co/0s4PQnYYeA #TIMEPOY pic.twitter.com/lnj4OLjMc1

— TIME.com (@TIME) 10 декабря 2014

Ferguson protesters took second place. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was Person of the Year in 2007, occupied third position. Behind Putin are acting President of the Iraqi Kurdish Region Masoud Barzani and the founder of Alibaba Group, Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma.

Time magazine has been awarding the title of Person of the Year since 1927 to individuals, groups and symbolic figures, such as the American fighting-man, representing US troops involved in the Korean War in 1950, or the Protester, inspired by individuals that took part in movements around the world including the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement in 2011. The title was even granted to the computer in 1982.

The current Ebola outbreak began in southern Guinea in late 2013 and has since spread across West Africa. As of early December, over 6,000 Ebola infection cases from a total of 17,145 have been lethal, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO also estimated that 622 health workers fighting Ebola have been infected with the deadly disease. Some 346 of them were killed by the virus.