This year's TIME Magazine person of the year title goes to the Ebola fighters - the many doctors and nurses who have fought to contain the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history and who have put their lives on the line to help treat others. According to CNBC, the title goes to an individual or group who, for better or worse, has had the biggest impact on the world and the news over the course of the previous year.

The Huffington Post reports that TIME Magazine's managing editor Nancy Gibbs on NBC's "Today" this Wednesday morning. She stated, "These men and women did the hard and dangerous work in treating patients and protecting the rest of us... [They showed an] exceptionally great amount of courage and kindness and bravery."

Ebola had emerged in Africa before 2014, but its emergence this year signaled an epidemic that traveled to the African countries of Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Mali, and then to Spain, Germany and the U.S. It damaged many African countries' already weak public-health infrastructures, and those who wanted to help treat Ebola victims ran high risks of becoming one.

However, some groups of men and women chose to stand and fight. The death toll for Ebola has been high - as of now, there have been more than 17,000 Ebola cases in this outbreak, leading to more than 6,000 deaths. Nonetheless, the Ebola fighters did their best to face the disease and help the rest of the world sleep a little easier at night.

According to the Huffington Post, among the caregivers honored in this year's issue is Dr. Kent Brantly, the American doctor who contracted Ebola while caring for patients in Liberia. In a recent appearance on the "Today" show, Brantly stated, "It's just a huge honor...This is not simply a historic event that we're looking back on... It's still happening. Ebola fighters are not just people who did something brave and courageous. They are still in the trenches fighting that war as we speak."

Keep a lookout for TIME Magazine's Person of the Year edition! It will have multiple cover versions, each highlighting a different Ebola fighter to represent the group. Those featured on the covers are: Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly, Dr. Jerry Brown, nurse aide and survivor Salome Karwah, MSF volunteer health promoter Ella Watson-Stryker, and ambulance team supervisor and survivor Foday Galla.