(Ritambhara, Intern journalist) Stockholm: This year (2020) the Nobel Prize for Medicine has been awarded to US scientists Harvey J. Alter, Charles M. Rice, and Britain’s Michael Haughton. These three scientists have been given this award for discovering the Hepatitis C virus.
The head of the Nobel committee, Thomas Pearlman, announced it in Stockholm on Monday. Hepatitis C is a blade-borne virus and causes hepatitis C disease which affects the liver. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 70 million hepatitis cases in the world. Every year, 4 million people die due to this disease in the world. This disease is classified as a chronic disease and is the leading cause of liver diseases and cancer. The discovery of the hepatitis A and B virus was a significant step forward, the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden said in a statement. The discovery of the Hepatitis C virus traced the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and saved millions of lives with blood tests and new drugs.
The Nobel Committee said, thanks for this discovery. Highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available and it has eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world. This has greatly improved global health. The jury said, for the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising the world’s population’s hopes of eradicating the hepatitis C virus.
The winning of the Nobel Prize carries a prize of 10 million Swedish crowns ($ 1.1 million). The three scientists will share the prize money. The Nobel Prize is given in memory of Sweden’s scientist Alfred Barnard Nobel. Before his death, Alfred had given a large part of the estate to the Trust to honor those individuals working for mankind. The first Nobel Peace Prize was given in 1901. The Nobel Prize is awarded in 6 fields. It is announced every year by 12 October. These fields are Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Economics.
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