Time magazine has named its "Person of the Year", or rather "Persons of the Year" - the Ebola Fighters.

Among those shortlisted for the title were Russian President Vladimir Putin (who took the title in 2007), the protestors in Ferguson, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Iraqi Kurdish Region president Masoud Barzani, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, and pop singer Taylor Swift.

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As the magazine so poignantly penned, "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."

The magazine has five covers, featuring various doctors and nurses who are currently helping obliterate the disease.

One of those featured on the cover is Dr. Kent Brantly, an American missionary who contracted the disease and survived. Other covers feature Dr. Jerry Brown, nurse's aide Salome Karwah, Doctors without Borders volunteer Ella Watson-Stryker and ambulance team supervisor Foday Galla.

Editor Nancy Gibbs made special mention of Karwah, who not only attended to and cared for patients, but lost both her parents to the disease within a week; and she herself survived Ebola. Her parents were running a medical center and cared for those who were ill.

The current Ebola outbreak has infected more than 17,800 people in West Africa - mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. More than 6,300 people have died from the disease.

Last year, Pope Francis was named Time's "Person of the Year". Aside from inspiring Catholics to return to the faith and encouraging the acceptance of all religions, he is the first pope to come from the Americas, and he is also the first Jesuit Pope.

TagsTIME, Person of the Year, Ebola Fighters