Stockholm (AFP)

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to three virologists, the Briton based in Canada Michael Houghton and the Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice, for their role in the discovery of the virus responsible for hepatitis vs.

The Anglo-Saxon trio is rewarded for its "decisive contribution", years apart, to "the discovery of the hepatitis C virus", said the Nobel jury, whose prize comes in the midst of the global race to break through the secrets of another pandemic, that of Covid-19.

At the end of the 1970s, Harvey Alter had identified that a mysterious liver contamination took place during transfusions when it was not linked to either hepatitis A or hepatitis B, the jury said, which in particular contributed to reducing transmissions to almost nothing in this way.

Years later, in 1989, Michael Houghton and his team were credited with discovering the genetic sequence of the virus.

As for Charles Rice, 68, "he has provided the final proof that the hepatitis C virus alone can cause the disease," said Patrik Ernfors, chairman of the committee that chooses the winners.

He also dissected for many years the way in which the virus replicated, work that notably led to the emergence of a new revolutionary treatment at the turn of the 2010s, sofosbuvir.

"I think it's quite easy to relate to the current situation," Ernfors said.

"The first thing to do is to identify the virus involved, and once that has been done, that is the starting point for developing treatments for the disease, as well as vaccines. So the viral discovery is a critical moment ".

The World Health Organization estimates that some 70 million hepatitis C infections cause 400,000 deaths each year, although effective, albeit very expensive, treatments have been developed in recent years.

"This is the best wake-up alarm I have ever had!", Rejoiced the winner Harvey Alter, who said he was woken up by calls from the Nobel Foundation around 4:30 am , before finally deciding to pick up the third call.

"It's something that we think will never happen (...), and finally it happens", told the Foundation the man who became at 85 years old one of the oldest laureates of the Nobel in medicine, without break the record (87 years).

The prize is the first directly linked to a virus since that of 2008. In 1976, the Nobel had already gone to work on hepatitis B

They are now 210 men to have been awarded the "physiology or medicine" prize since its creation in 1901, and only 12 women.

From the discovery over half a century ago of two types of lymphocytes, B and T, essential in understanding our immune system, to the breakthrough of the "molecular scissors" in genetics in the 2010s, in Through work on breast cancer, several major medical advances - and their authors - were cited by experts as nobelizable this year.

Other scientists had been mentioned as nobelisables for their work on hepatitis C, the German Ralf Bartenschlager for basic research, and the American Michael Sofia for the development of sofosbuvir, now sold at a high price. by the Gilead laboratory under the name Sovaldi.

- First since 1944 -

Last year, the Nobel Prize for Medicine rewarded Americans William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza, as well as Briton Peter Ratcliffe, specialists in the impact of oxygen on cells.

If the Nobel 2020 are well announced as planned this week, the coronavirus led to the cancellation of the physical award ceremony on December 10 in Stockholm.

A first since 1944.

The winners announced on Monday, who will share nearly a million euros, must receive their prize in their country of residence.

This 2020 edition of the Nobel, which continues on Tuesday with physics and Wednesday with chemistry, is considered particularly open.

For peace on Friday, freedom of the press (Reporters Without Borders, Committee for the Protection of Journalists ...) or the climate, with the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future, or the WHO are mentioned for succeed Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

For literature Thursday, fifteen profiles are predicted ranging from the American-Caribbean Jamaica Kincaid to the Albanian Ismaïl Kadaré through the Canadian Anne Carson.

Unless Michel Houellebecq or Maryse Condé, bring a sixteenth prize to France, world leader of the winners.

© 2020 AFP