The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles M. Rice “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus”.
The Noble Prize for the year 2020 have started their announcement on October 5th and will go till October 12. Today, the award for Medicine was announced.
Approximately 400,000 deaths occur in a year due to Hepatitis C. For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating Hepatitis C virus from the world population.
The three scientists have made a decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in people around the world.
Highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available and these have essentially eliminated the 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.
Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2020/10/press-medicine2020.pdf
Pic Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/
