Alison Schafer is a trained psychologist working with the international humanitarian agency World Vision.

On January 12, she went to ­Sierra Leone from her home in Melbourne to work on the social, emotional and psychological effects of the Ebola epidemic, which during the past year has killed more than 10,250 people in ­Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The recent outbreak of the Ebola virus epidemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has exposed the underbelly of many of Africa’s healthcare systems. They are often poorly funded, severely neglected and in some cases virtually nonexistent. The disease’s virulence has overwhelmed health systems that even before Ebola lacked basic equipment and facilities, medical staff and supporting infrastructure.

For a fleeting moment last spring, the epidemic sweeping West Africa might have been stopped. But the opportunity to control the virus, which has now caused more than 7,800 deaths, was lost.

A health worker who just returned to Scotland from Sierra Leone has been diagnosed as the country's first Ebola case, Scottish authorities said Monday. The Scottish government said on its website that infectious-disease procedures have been put into effect, and the patient has been isolated and is being treated on the Gartnavel Hospital campus in Glasgow.

President Barack Obama will be awarded the bulk of his $6.2 billion request to fight Ebola in Africa, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee said Thursday.

The head of the UN Ebola response mission in West Africa has told the BBC there is still a "huge risk" the deadly disease could spread to other parts of the world. Tony Banbury declined to say if targets he had set in the fight against Ebola, to be achieved by Monday, had been met.

Washington, DC-- Registered nurses at Providence Hospital in the District of Columbia, will hold a one-day strike on Wednesday, November 12 to protest the hospital’s refusal to address critical issues of health and safety concerns for patients and nurses as symbolized by inadequate Ebola preparedness

Official figures show 111 new cases on Sunday, the highest daily rate since August, as UN warns numbers may be much higher

The Obama administration has asked Congress for more than $6 billion in emergency funding to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and secure the United States against further spread of the deadly virus.

As the Ebola outbreak continues to dominate headlines, so too do the stories of health care workers fighting to contain the disease.