Three Awarded Nobel for Medicine for Identifying Hepatitis C Virus

Three scientists won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday for identifying the virus responsible for Hepatitis C.

The Hepatitis C virus is a major cause of liver disease, a condition that affects millions of people worldwide.

The Nobel Committee named two Americans, Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice, and British-born scientist Michael Houghton as joint¹ winners of the prize.

The committee noted² that the three had identified a major source of blood-borne hepatitis. It said the source could not be explained by the Hepatitis A and B viruses, which were discovered earlier.

Their work – dating back to the 1970s and 1980s – made possible blood tests and new medicines that saved millions of lives, the committee said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there are over 70 million cases of Hepatitis C worldwide and 400,000 deaths from it each year.

Hepatitis is a term for inflammation, or an infection, of the liver. There are five main Hepatitis viruses, known as types A, B, C, D and E.

The Hepatitis A virus is usually spread through human waste in water or food. But the virus is deadly in less than one percent of cases. Many people infected with Hepatitis A never get sick. And those who do usually recover within two months.

Hepatitis B and C are spread when blood from an infected person enters the body of another person. People also can get infected with Hepatitis B if they share personal-care products that might have blood on them.

Hepatitis C is a major cause of liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver, a condition that causes scar tissue to slowly replace healthy cells. In time, the patient may require a liver transplant operation.

The Nobel prize for medicine has special importance this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The health crisis has shown how important medical research is for societies and economies around the world. It has also demonstrated the serious effects a single virus can have on the whole planet.

"Thanks to their discovery, highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available and these have essentially³ eliminated post-transfusion⁴ hepatitis in many parts of the world," the committee said.

The discovery also led to the speedy 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 eradicating⁵ the Hepatitis C virus from the world population."

Harvey Alter carried out his prize-winning studies at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, where he remains⁶ active today. Rice worked on hepatitis at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. He now works at Rockefeller University in New York. Houghton, born in Britain, studied at the Chiron Corporation in California before moving to the University of Alberta in Canada.

Alter spoke⁷ about the early morning telephone call he got from the Nobel committee in Stockholm. The American said he ignored the first two times the phone rang before "angrily" answering it the third time. He added that his anger went away "in about a second."

"It's so kind of other-worldly," he said of the call. "It's something you don't think will ever happen and sometimes you don't think you deserve it to happen and it happens," he added.

"In this crazy COVID year where everything is turned upside down, this is another nice upside down for me," Alter added.

John McLauchlan is a professor of viral hepatitis at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He called the prize winners "pioneers," saying their discovery had made it possible to fight the disease worldwide. In 2016, the WHO approved a plan of action to beat hepatitis by 2030.

"That would mark the first time we might possibly control a viral infection using only drugs," McLauchlan said.

Nobel Committee member Patrik Ernfors noted similarities between the medicine prize and efforts by scientists around the world to find a vaccine⁸ to fight COVID-19.

"The first thing you need to do is to identify the causing virus," he told reporters. "And once that has been done, that is, in itself, the starting point for development of drugs to treat the disease and also develop vaccines," Ernfors said.

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine is the 111th to be awarded for medicine since 1901. The winners will each receive an equal share of the $1.1 million in prize money._

Words in This Story

source – n. where something comes from

borne – v. carried or transported by the thing specified⁹

cirrhosis – n. a serious disease of the liver

scar – n. a mark left on the part of the body after an injury

eliminate – v. remove

transfusion – n. the process of adding an amount of blood to the body of a person or animal, or the amount of blood itself

eradicate¹⁰ – v. get rid of something completely

deserve – v. to have earned or been given something because of the way you behaved or the qualities you have

pioneer – n. a person who is one of the first people to do something

1 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

2 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 transfusion   

n.输血，输液

参考例句：

• She soon came to her senses after a blood transfusion.输血后不久她就苏醒了。
• The doctor kept him alive by a blood transfusion.医生靠输血使他仍然活着。

5 eradicating   

摧毁，完全根除( eradicate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Objective: To study the acute and chronic toxicity of Ten-flavor-acne eradicating-capsule. 目的：探讨复方中药合剂十味平痤胶囊的急性及慢性毒性。
• We are on the verge of eradicating polio in the world. 我们已在世界消除小儿？痹症的边缘了。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

9 specified   

adj.特定的

参考例句：

• The architect specified oak for the wood trim. 那位建筑师指定用橡木做木饰条。
• It is generated by some specified means. 这是由某些未加说明的方法产生的。

10 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。