In November 2014, a worker stands by dividers to separate patients in an Ebola treatment facility under construction in the Port Loko district of Sierra Leone. David Gilkey/NPR hide caption
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Mamuedeh Kanneh (right) was married to the man who brought Ebola to Barkedu, Liberia, a village of about 6,000. He died of the virus. She now cares for her children as well as children who lost their parents to the disease. John W. Poole/NPR hide caption
Rosa Coj Bocel is the first person from her village in Guatemala to go to college. She hopes to become a nurse and open a pharmacy. Akash Ghai/NPR hide caption
The multimammate mouse can transmit Lassa virus to humans. The virus is likely spread when the rodent urinates or defecates on grain supplies. US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health hide caption
Garmai Sumo is a nurse featured in the documentary, Body Team 12. In one scene, she shares her religious views: "When they die, the righteous will resurrect on the day of the trumpet. But everyone remain in their grave for now." Body Team 12 hide caption
Benjamin McCrumade, at right, gets ready for the finals. Carielle Doe for NPR hide caption
When a country is declared Ebola-free — like Sierra Leone last November — the mood is upbeat. But that doesn't mean the virus is vanquished, as Sierra Leone learned this month. Aurelie Marrier d'Unienvil/AP hide caption
A corpse has tested positive for the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone, a day after world health officials declared West Africa free of the disease. On Friday, people pass a banner reading "STOP EBOLA" — part of Sierra Leone's health campaign — in the city of Freetown. Aurelie Marrier d'Unienville/AP hide caption
An optometrist confronts the killers responsible for his brother's death during the 1965 Indonesian genocide in The Look of Silence. Courtesy Drafthouse Films and Participant Media. hide caption
A unidentified family member (right) of a 10-year-old boy that contracted Ebola has her temperature measured by a health worker outside an Ebola clinic on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, on Nov. 20. Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have now gone 42 days without a single reported case of Ebola. Abbas Dulleh /AP hide caption
Guinea is where the Ebola outbreak started in West Africa. In this photo from November 2014, workers from the local Red Cross prepare to bury people who died of the virus. Kenzo Tribouillard /AFP/Getty Images hide caption
A painting of Louis Pasteur in his laboratory. The French chemist and microbiologist once said, "Fortune favors the prepared mind." A new report on pandemics bears a similar message. Corbis hide caption
The Indian fruit bat known as the flying fox can harbor diseases that other animals — and humans — can contract. Stephen Dalton/Science Source hide caption
Measles, the reorganization of the World Health Organization and the Zika virus could all make global health headlines in 2016. Rich Pedroncelli, Raphael Satter, Felipe Dana/AP hide caption
Medical workers surround 34-day-old Noubia, the last known patient to contract Ebola in Guinea, as she was released from a Doctors Without Borders treatment center in Conakry on Nov. 28. Cellou Binani /AFP/Getty Images hide caption