New Delhi: Amid the global gloom over the Covid-19 pandemic, came good news on Monday in the field of medicine: Two Americans, Harvey J Alter, and Charles M Rice, and British scientist Michael Houghton, have been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology for 2020 for their discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.
Announcing the Prize in Stockholm, the Nobel Committee noted that the three scientists’ pioneering work helped explain a major source of blood-borne Hepatitis that could not earlier be explained by the Hepatitis A and B viruses, according to media reports.
Their work made it possible to conduct blood tests and evolve new medicines that have saved millions of lives, the Committee said.
It was due to their work that highly sensitive blood tests for the virus became available. They eliminated post-transfusion Hepatitis in many parts of the world, vastly improving global health.
Their discovery also allowed the rapid development of antiviral drugs directed at Hepatitis C. For the first time, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating the Hepatitis C virus from the global population.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated more than 70 million cases of Hepatitis worldwide and 400,000 deaths annually. The disease is chronic and a major cause of liver inflammation and cancer.
The prestigious Nobel award carries a gold medal and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (more than USD 1,118,000), thanks to a bequest left 124 years ago by the Prize’s creator, Swedish dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.
The Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology carries particular significance this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has highlighted the importance that medical research has for societies and economies around the world.
The Nobel Committee often recognizes basic science that has laid the foundations for practical applications in common use.
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