Nobel nod for scientists fighting tropical diseases
STOCKHOLM— The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went Monday to three scientists hailed as “heroes in the truest sense of the word” for saving millions of lives with the creation of the world’s leading malaria-fighting drug and another that has nearly wiped out two devastating tropical diseases.
Tu Youyou, the first Chinese medicine laureate, turned to ancient texts to produce artemisinin, a drug that is now the top treatment for malaria. While working on a project for the Chinese military during the Cultural Revolution, and inspired by traditional Chinese medicine, Tu discovered that a compound from the wormwood plant was highly effective against the malaria parasite.
Tu will share the eight-million Swedish kronor ($1.25 million) award with Japanese microbiologist Satoshi Omura and William Campbell, an Irish-born U.S. scientist.
Omura and Campbell created the drug avermectin, whose derivatives have nearly rid the planet of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, diseases caused by parasitic worms and spread by mosquitos and flies. They affect millions of people in Afri- ca, Latin America and Asia, leaving sufferers blind or disfigured and often unable to work.
The Nobel committee said the winners, who are all in their 80s and made their breakthroughs in the 1970s and ’80s, had given humankind powerful tools. “The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffering are immeasurable,” the committee said.
The Carter Center, in Atlanta, Ga., called the three laureates “heroes in the truest sense of the word, saving lives through medicine.”
Besides the cash prize, each winner also gets a diploma and a gold medal at the award ceremony on Dec. 10.