Americans Harvey J Alter and Charles M Rice, and British scientist Michael Houghton were awarded the Nobel Prize 2020 for Medicine or Physiology on Monday for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus.
The head of the Nobel Committee, Thomas Perlmann, announced the winners in Stockholm.
The disease is chronic and a major cause of liver inflammation and cancer.
Their work makes possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives, the committee said.
Thanks to their discovery, highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available and these have essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world, greatly improving global health. Their discovery also allowed the rapid development of antiviral drugs directed at hepatitis C, it added. For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus from the world population, the committee added.
World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates there are over 70 million cases of hepatitis worldwide and 400,000 deaths each year.
The award comes with a gold medal and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1,118,000), courtesy of a bequest left 124 years ago by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The award is the first of six prizes being announced through October 12. The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.
