Time magazine names Ebola fighters as 'Person of the Year'

The brave medical people on the front lines of fighting the deadly Ebola epidemic have been named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.” This year the virus has claimed more than 6,000 lives and the healthcare workers have risked their own lives to care for victims all over the world.

Ebola survivor and counsellor Salome Karwah appeared on one of the covers

The outbreak has mostly been confined to the African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, and victims' symptoms have included fever, internal and external bleeding, and organ failure.

The magazine celebrated the heroic workers by releasing multiple covers, each with a different fighter on it.

Dr. Kent Brantly was running a treatment center in Monrovia when he became the first American to be infected

Dr. Kent Brantly, medical missions advisor for Samaritan's Purse and the first American to be affected with the virus, told TODAY "It’s an incredible honor."

"Those who paid the highest price for their service are themselves West Africans. It’s an honor for me to be considered as a part of that group," he said on Wednesday.

The Ebola fighters beat out seven other finalists to win the prestigious honor. These included singer Taylor Swift, Chinese Internet tycoon Jack Ma, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani.

Ella Watson-Stryker works for Doctors Without Borders and has been helping fight Ebola since March

The magazine's readers voted for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to receive the title but the editors at the magazine had the final say and chose "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year."

Last year’s winner of the title was Pope Francis.