China News Agency, Beijing, October 5th, Stockholm news: The Caroline School of Medicine in Sweden announced on the 5th that the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to three scientists Harvey Alt, Michael Horton and Charles Rice. The reason for the award is to make a decisive contribution to the discovery of hepatitis C virus.

  The official website of the Nobel Prize stated in a press release issued on the same day that blood-borne hepatitis can cause liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, and is a major global health threat.

The three award-winning scientists have all made significant contributions to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.

The discovery of hepatitis C virus not only revealed the cause of some chronic hepatitis cases, but also made it possible to conduct blood tests and develop antiviral drugs for hepatitis C virus, saving millions of lives.

  According to the press release, although the scientific community has made many discoveries in previous studies on hepatitis A and B viruses, the etiology of most blood-borne hepatitis cases is still unexplainable.

Alter and his colleagues discovered a new pathogen through research. This pathogen is different from the hepatitis A and B viruses, but also has viral characteristics.

Horton and his colleagues extracted and cloned the DNA structure of a new type of virus from the serum of an infected person, which was eventually named hepatitis C virus.

Rice and the research team completed the last "key puzzle".

They discovered the region responsible for replication in the hepatitis C virus DNA structure and confirmed that the virus itself can cause disease.

  According to the press release, Alter was born in New York City in 1935, Rice was born in Sacramento, California in 1952, and Horton was born in England.

  According to the Associated Press, the secretary of the award committee Thomas Perlman said at a press conference held on the 5th that he had made telephone contact with two of the three award-winning scientists, and they expressed “very surprised and happy”.

  The Physiology or Medicine Prize is the first prize announced for the 2020 Nobel Prize.

According to the schedule, the Physics Award, Chemistry Award, Literature Award, Peace Award and Economics Award will be announced from October 6th to 12th.

Affected by the new crown epidemic, the Nobel Prize award ceremony will no longer be held in December this year, and the award ceremony will be held online instead.

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