Richismita Hazra, Amity University Kolkata
The “US-UK” triad, Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles M. Rice, have been awarded jointly, the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus. Scientists will share the prestigious Nobel prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million, 950,000 euros).
Hepatitis – a condition of liver inflammation, caused by viral infections which can be self-limiting, but is potential enough for progressing towards fibrosis, cirrhosis or liver cancer had been a serious global issue for years. Most of the bloodborne hepatitis cases remained in the dark even after the discoveries of Hepatitis A & Hepatitis B viruses. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there to be 70 million cases of Hepatitis C infection globally, with 4,00,000 deaths.
The three were honored for their momentous contribution which has been a landmark achievement in the ongoing battle against viral diseases. Their discovery would lead Medical Science a great step ahead in the development of antiviral drugs targeted at Hepatitis C and hence eradication of the same can now be thought of because the first and most important step is “ identification of the virus’.
“The discovery of Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives,” the Nobel committee said.
“The pandemic is a big crisis for mankind, but it illustrates how important science is,” said Nobel Foundation head Lars Heikensten.
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Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2020/summary/
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