Hindu Description | How did the 2020 Nobel Laureates in Medicine identify hepatitis C infectious agents?

So far: This year Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Awarded to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice Discovery of hepatitis C virus.. The Nobel Prize was awarded to “three scientists who have 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.” Did.

Why is discovery important?

hepatitis (Greek liver inflammation) is a disease characterized by loss of appetite, vomiting, malaise, and jaundice, including yellow discoloration of the skin and eyes. Chronic hepatitis causes liver damage and can progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer. “Viral infections are the leading cause of hepatitis, and in some cases it can last for years without symptoms until life-threatening complications develop,” the Nobel Prize announcement details.

The first description of hepatitis is said to have been recorded by the Greek doctor Hippocrates around 400 BC. “Infectious hepatitis can be caused by the five RNA or DNA viruses that are the most common cause of hepatitis in the world,” he said. Nobel communicates..

Hepatitis A It spreads through direct contact with infected people, including contaminated food and water, and sexual activity. Until the 1960s, blood exposure from infected individuals was a major health hazard, with an up to 30% risk of developing chronic hepatitis after surgery or multiple transfusions.It was Nobel laureate Baruch BloombergA geneticist working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda. Discovered hepatitis B virus (HBV) And he gave way to almost everything that continued in the field of liver virology. This year’s winner, Harvey Alter, collaborated with Bloomberg in the lab during this phase. However, the identification and classification of HBV, and ultimately even the removal of HBV-contaminated blood by testing, only partially reduced the risk of developing hepatitis from the blood. Obviously, HBV was only part of the riddle. Efforts to identify the missing parts have been updated.

Efforts in this direction were also essential, as various types of viral hepatitis contribute significantly to the global burden of liver disease.by WHO Global Hepatitis Report, 2017, “Viral hepatitis caused 1.34 million deaths in 2015, which is comparable to tuberculosis deaths and more than HIV deaths.” However, the number of deaths from viral hepatitis increases over time. The mortality rate from tuberculosis and HIV is declining.

“Most of the deaths from viral hepatitis in 2015 were due to chronic liver disease (720,000 deaths from cirrhosis) and primary liver cancer (470,000 deaths from hepatocellular carcinoma). In 2015, an estimated 257 million people had chronic HBV infection and 71 million had chronic HCV. [Hepatitis C virus] Infection … The epidemic caused by HCV affects all regions, but there are significant differences between countries. The WHO East Mediterranean and Europe regions are reported to have the highest prevalence of HCV, “the report said.

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How was the unknown factor tracked?

Upon returning to the lab, this still unknown causative factor, “non-A, non-B hepatitis” (NANBH), was assigned a tentative name. The situation is horrifying, as it was clear that the drug responsible for NANBH was responsible for the surprising number of post-transfusion hepatitis, as explained by Nobel’s backgrounder, and most infectious carriers showed no clinical symptoms. It was a thing.

A study by Dr. Alter and Dr. Horton established an important link between NANBH and HCV infection. Later, Charles Rice’s study provided conclusive evidence that only HCV can cause transfusion-mediated hepatitis, which can persist for long periods of time and stimulate certain antibody responses — human infections. All features.

Why is this award so important?

The Nobel Parliament at the Karolinska Institute praised the discovery of the hepatitis C virus as “a breakthrough in the fight against ongoing viral diseases.”The importance of choosing the work done by virologists and geneticists when others are sweating to decipher SARS-CoV-2 virus, You can’t miss it. Nobel Prize recognition for pioneering research in this area could boost researchers whose fight against the COVID-19 virus was as difficult as deciphering the causative factors of hepatitis.

Editorial | Defeat the virus

Interestingly ScienceBy 2015, the journal stated that 210 people had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, of which only 33 were related to the fields of infectious disease, clinical microbiology, and immunology.

What more do I need to do in the field?

Once the puzzle was solved, screening methods were developed that dramatically reduced the risk of developing hepatitis from contaminated blood. Effective antivirals are also available, the Nobel Prize says.

2016 World Health Assembly Global Health Sector Strategy for Viral Hepatitis (GHSS) 2016–2021Call for the eradication of viral hepatitis as a public hygiene threat by 2030. Affordable testing and ensuring access to viral treatments that improve quality of life and reduce hepatitis mortality should be a government priority, WHO Global Hepatitis Report Advice.