Doctors, nurses and others fighting Ebola through "tireless acts of courage and mercy" have been named Time magazine's 2014 Person of the Year.

The runners-up included Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba; protesters in Ferguson, Missouri; Russian President Vladimir Putin; and Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani.

Time's editor, Nancy Gibbs, praised "the people in the field, the special forces of Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Christian medical relief workers of Samaritan's Purse and many others from allover the world".