What Happened:

• Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice and British scientist Michael Houghton won the Nobel Prize for medicine on Monday for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus.

• The Nobel Committee says their work, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, has helped save millions of lives.

• Said the Committee, “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."

• Hepatitis C is a major cause of liver disease that affects millions of people worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates there are over 70 million cases of hepatitis C worldwide and 400,000 deaths from it each year.

Image Source: Florian Pircher