This year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology has been awarded to three scientists for their discovery of the Hepatitis C virus. This award is one of the most prestigious (important) awards in the world.

Winners are Michael Houghton from the UK and Harvey Alter and Charles Rice from the US.

What is the Hepatitis C virus?

The Hepatitis C virus is a common cause of liver cancer and why people need liver transplants. The virus can spread through blood transfusions.

Before it was discovered, many people who received donated blood got liver problems. While Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B were already known, people still suffered from a mysterious illness.

However, thanks to the three scientists’ work, the real cause was discovered. This helped create medicines and blood tests to treat the disease which has saved millions of people.

The three scientists who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine worked separately to identify it.

What did the three scientists do?

Alter was the first to notice that a mysterious illness of people who received blood donation was not due to Hepatitis A or B. Then, Houghton isolated the genetic sequence of the new unknown virus. Rice completed the work by proving that it was a new type of Hepatitis called Hepatitis C.

The trio will share the Nobel prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (about US$1.1 million). Normally, they would receive the award in December in Stockholm, Sweden. However, this year, they will receive it in their own countries.

The Nobel Prizes for other categories will also be announced over this week.

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