The year 2014 was marked by the main surge of the West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, it was the most widespread outbreak of the Ebola virus in human history. It infected a confirmed 28,646 people and killed 11,323, though the World Health Organization (WHO) believes that this substantially understates the magnitude of the outbreak, the virus caused major socioeconomic disruption in the region, primarily in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and spread to Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom, resulting in a Public Health Emergency of International Concern being declared on 8 August 2024. Other notable health concerns in 2014 included a significant increase in polio cases, particularly in Pakistan, which reported 306 cases in 2014, a dramatic rise from 93 cases in 2013 and a escalation of the MERS outbreak, after major outbreak occurred in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from March to May 2014. 2014 was designated as:

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Births and deaths

Nobel Prizes

New English words