In the midst of a viral pandemic, three discoverers of an entirely different virus – hepatitis C – have been awarded the Nobel prize in medicine. Harvey Alter from the US National Institutes of Health, Michael Houghton at Canada’s University of Alberta and Charles Rice at the Rockefeller University in the US share this year’s prize for uncovering the cause of a major global health problem that affects 71 million people – 1% of the world’s population.
In a statement, the Nobel Assembly said the isolation of Hepatitis C had marked a landmark achievement in the ongoing battle against viral diseases and had resulted in the creation of specific testing regimen and cures to tackle the illness around the world. An estimated 71 million people currently live with chronic hepatitis C, according to the World Health Organization. Most patients are able to recover from the infection, but in chronic cases, hepatitis C slowly corrodes the liver over years or decades. It ultimately results in potentially fatal cirrhosis or liver cancer, and patients often end up requiring a liver transplant.
Why the discovery of Hepatitis C virus is significant
While the discovery of hepatitis viruses, including hepatitis A and B had been critical steps forward, the majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases remained unexplained. The identification of the hepatitis C virus was significant as it revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis. The discovery of the HCV also led to the development of diagnostic tests such as blood tests and new effective medicines, saving millions of lives.
“This year’s Nobel Prize is awarded to three scientists who 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,” the committee said in a statement. “The 2020 Nobel Prize laureates Harvey J Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M Rice made seminal discoveries that led to the identification of a novel virus, hepatitis C,” it 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.”
