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The covers of the Dec 10, 2014 issue of TIME magazine is shown in this handout photo provided by Time on Dec 10, 2014. (Photo/Agencies) |
NEW YORK - Doctors, nurses and others fighting Ebola through "tireless acts of courage and mercy" have been named Time's 2014 Person of the Year, the magazine announced Wednesday.
The runners-up included Ferguson, Missouri, protesters; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani; and Jack Ma, the China-based founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Time's editor, Nancy Gibbs, praised "the people in the field, the special forces of Doctors Without Borders/Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF), the Christian medical-relief workers of Samaritan's Purse and many others from all over the world" who "fought side by side with local doctors and nurses, ambulance drivers and burial teams."
Gibbs noted that the disease has struck doctors and nurses.
"The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight," she wrote.
Antoine Petibon, head of international programs for the French Red Cross, which has been active in Guinea's anti-Ebola efforts, called it "great recognition for all these people who have been toiling in the shadows."
The disease has taken its toll in myriad ways.
In September, a team trying to inform villagers about Ebola in the forests of southern Guinea was attacked by a mob. The bodies of eight people - two local administrators, two medical officers, a preacher and three journalists, were found stuffed in a latrine.
Less than a month after arriving in Guinea, Cuban Dr. Jorge Juan Guerra Rodriguez died of malaria.
Henry Gray, MSF operations coordinator for the Ebola response in Guinea and Liberia, said the spotlight should be on the patients and the thousands of people in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Mali "who are doing their best to deal with this horrendous outbreak."
Gray, speaking by phone from Conakry, the Guinea capita, said, "We are happy for this recognition but will be even happier when the last Ebola treatment center is closed and the crisis is declared over."
