Congratulations to Time Magazine List of “Person of the Year” #EbolaFighters.
This year, TIME Magazine Person of the Year recognized some of the amazing healthcare workers who dealt with the current Ebola crisis. The article documented the grandeur actions of these presumably ordinary people whose personal efforts directly served the containment of the deathly disease.
The most current Ebola outbreak affected a dismaying amount of people throughout West Africa, eventually being declared an international public health emergency. Despite the scare contingent with the epidemic many individuals put their lives on the line to help those who desperately needed it.
TIME magazine’s diverse group of heroes hidden in the shadows focused on the lives of Dr. Jerry Brown, Dr. Kent Brantly, Ella Watson-Stryker, Foday Gallah, and Salome Kamrah, who became the heroic faces of Ebola fighters.
The individuals chosen each give their own account of how Ebola personally affected them. Their vivid anecdotes showcase the weary atmosphere that so closely parallels the deadly and fearsome disease. The most tantalizing aspect of the article is seeing Ebola spread from its beginning stages to becoming a full blown epidemic, which continuously follows a repetitive theme of how awareness, adequate training, and a better initial response could have completely changed the outcome.
One of the representatives, Dr. Kent Brantly was in Liberia helping Ebola patients when he contracted it himself. Despite the high percentage death rate, Dr. Brantly survived the disease with the help of an experimental drug called ZMapp, furthering his initial belief of why he entered the medical field, “I chose a career in medicine because I wanted a tangible skill with which to serve people,” a reason which propelled him to work in Liberia in the first place.
Every healthcare worker mentioned in the piece represents a larger scale of those associated in the fight against Ebola. Read the rest of these remarkable stories of individuals whose selfless actions led to their acknowledgement as TIME’s People of the Year.
The Global Connections for Women foundation (GC4W) along with many other foundations all around the world are working with as many organizations possible to help raise awareness and play its part in the global initiative against Ebola. To learn more about how Ebola affects women check out our recent story on “Barbara Bush and Melinda Gates Address the Impact of Ebola on Women empowerment“.