--- description: For 2014, the Ebola Fighters have been selected. In 1996, the Man of the Year was AIDS researcher Dr. David Ho title: TIME Magazine Person of the Year: AIDS Doctor David Ho for 1996 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96ef474e737eb277/69876bedf887dc1b6de88b6f/time-person-of-the-year-70.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [health](/tag/health/) ## health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Until 2014, This Man Was TIME's Only Medical Person of the Year  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 10, 2014 5:17 PM CUT  1996: Dr. David Ho 1996: Dr. David HoTIME  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 10, 2014 5:17 PM CUT “Some ages are defined by their epidemics,” wrote Philip Elmer-De Witt in TIME’s 1996 Man of the Year issue. The 14th century was the time of the bubonic plague. The 16th brought smallpox to the new world. In the early 20th century, influenza rampaged. “Today,” he wrote back then, “we live in the shadow of AIDS–the terrifyingly modern epidemic that travels by jet and zeros in on the body’s own disease-fighting immune system.” The idea that a virus or bacterium can change the world — and that the men and women who fight them can too — is no less true now than it was then. On Wednesday, TIME announced that [the Ebola Fighters have been named the Person of the Year for 2014](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-ebola-fighters-choice/ "undefined"). As [TIME’s Editor Nancy Gibbs notes](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-ebola-fighters-choice/ "undefined"), this year’s Ebola outbreak has brought forward heroes while raising the question of how the world can turn their personal sacrifices into new ways to fight the virus, to respond to epidemics and to care for those who need it most. And though AIDS and Ebola remain two of the most frightening diseases on earth, looking back at 1996’s Man of the Year cover story can bring at least a little hope that those questions stand a chance of being answered. (There were theoretical medical researchers included in the 1960 Men of the Year issue, honoring U.S. scientists, but their work as doctors was not the focus of the story; Dr. Ho is the only Man of the Year prior to 2014 selected specifically for his work with a disease.) At the time, AIDS was a death sentence — but Ho, by successfully lowering the virus count in patients who received a combination of new and powerful drugs when they’d only just been infected, helped change the way the medical community looked at HIV and AIDS. Nearly two decades later, though an AIDS vaccine is still not a reality, progress has been substantial. AIDS researchers have found their answers to many of the questions Ebola fighters face today. Treatment protocols are well established (if not applied equally all over the world). Survival is no longer miraculous. It’s possible to prevent transmission. And, just this winter, TIME took a look at the state of [AIDS in San Francisco](http://time.com/3596979/the-end-of-aids/ "undefined") and found that, against what would have once seemed impossible odds, the city has the elimination of the disease in its sights. Dr. Ho continues to direct the [Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center](http://www.adarc.org/david%5Fho%5F424.html "undefined"); in 2010, TIME [profiled him again](http://time.com/vault/issue/2010-01-25/page/44/ "undefined") and found that he was still pioneering new ways of treating the disease. That tireless work by Ho and his colleagues is one of the reasons AIDS is no longer a defining disease of our time — and if he demonstrates that devotion and dedication can make a difference, that’s just one more reason to honor the Ebola fighters. **_Read the full story about Dr. David Ho, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Man of the Year, Dr. David Ho](http://time.com/vault/issue/1996-12-30/page/1/ "undefined") ### See Every Person Of The Year Cover Ever  Photograph by Mark Mahaney for TIME  Portrait by Jason Seiler for TIME  Photograph by Evgenia Arbugaeva for TIME  2018: The Guardians Photographs by Moises Saman-Magnum Photos for TIME  TIME Person of the Year 2017: The Silence Breakers Billy & Hells for TIME  2016: Donald Trump TIME  2015: Angela Merkel TIME  2014: The Ebola Fighters TIME  2013: Pope Francis TIME  2012: President Barack Obama TIME  2011: The Protester TIME  2010: Mark Zuckerberg TIME  2009: Ben Bernanke TIME  2008: President Barack Obama TIME  2007: Vladimir Putin TIME  2006: You TIME  2005: The Good Samaritans: Bill Gates, Bono, Melinda Gates TIME  2004: President George W. Bush TIME  2003: The American Soldier TIME  2002: The Whistleblowers: Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins TIME  2001: Rudy Giuliani TIME  2000: President George W. Bush TIME  1999: Jeff Bezos TIME  1998: Kenneth Starr and Bill Clinton TIME  1997: Andrew Grove TIME  1996: Dr. David Ho TIME  1995: Newt Gingrich TIME  1994: Pope John Paul II TIME  1993: The Peacemakers: Yitzhak Rabin, Nelson Mandela, F.W. De Klerk, Yasser Arafat TIME  1992: President Bill Clinton TIME  1991: Ted Turner TIME  1990: President George H.W. Bush TIME  1989: Mikhail Gorbachev TIME  1988: Endangered Earth TIME  1987: Mikhail Gorbachev TIME  1986: Corazon Aquino TIME  1985: Deng Xiaoping TIME  1984: Peter Ueberroth TIME  1983: President Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov TIME  1982: The Computer TIME  1981: Lech Wałęsa TIME  1980: President Ronald Reagan TIME  1979: Ayatollah Khomeini TIME  1978: Deng Xiaoping TIME  1977: Anwar Sadat TIME  1976: President Jimmy Carter TIME  1975: American Women TIME  1974: King Faisal TIME  1973: John Sirica TIME  1972: President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger TIME  1971: President Richard Nixon TIME  1970: Willy Brandt TIME  1969: The Middle Americans TIME  1968: The Apollo 8 Astronauts TIME  1967: President Lyndon B. Johnson TIME  1966: Men and Women 25 and Under TIME  1965: William Westmoreland TIME  1964: Lyndon B. Johnson TIME  1963: Martin Luther King, Jr. TIME  1962: Pope John XXIII TIME  1961: President John F. Kennedy TIME  1960: U.S. Scientists TIME  1959: President Dwight D. Eisenhower TIME  1958: Charles de Gaulle TIME  1957: Nikita Khrushchev TIME  1956: The Hungarian Freedom Fighter TIME  1955: Harlow Curtice TIME  1954: John Foster Dulles TIME  1953: Konrad Adenauer TIME  1952: Queen Elizabeth II TIME  1951: Mohammad Mossadegh TIME  1950: The American Fighting Man TIME  1949: Winston Churchill TIME  1948: President Harry S. Truman TIME  1947: George Marshall TIME  1946: James F. Byrnes TIME  1945: President Harry S. Truman TIME  1944: Dwight D. Eisenhower TIME  1943: George Marshall TIME  1942: Joseph Stalin TIME  1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt TIME  1940: Winston Churchill TIME  1939: Joseph Stalin TIME  1938: Adolf Hitler TIME  1937: Chiang Kai-shek and Soong May-ling TIME  1936: Wallis Simpson TIME  1935: Haile Selassie TIME  1934: President Franklin D. Roosevelt TIME  1933: Hugh S. Johnson TIME  1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt TIME  1931: Pierre Laval TIME  1930: Mahatma Gandhi TIME  1929: Owen D. Young TIME  1928: Walter Chrysler TIME  1927: Charles Lindbergh TIME ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3627996/david-ho-person-of-the-year/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3627996/david-ho-person-of-the-year/"},"headline":"Until 2014, This Man Was TIME's Only Medical Person of the Year","datePublished":"2014-12-10T17:17:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:44.441Z","description":"For 2014, the Ebola Fighters have been selected. 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