One of the most prestigious awards in medicine, the Nobel Prize, has gone to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
According to CNN Health, the Nobel Assembly said the three had "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 Nobel committee also credited them for making discoveries that made it possible for blood tests for the virus and, thus, development of a treatment for it.
The World Health Organization says 71 million people worldwide have hepatitis C.
SOURCE: CNN Health October 5, 2020