“Heroes”:

3 scientists get Nobel Prize for work to end malaria, two other diseases.

The Nobel prize in 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- ever Chinese medicine laureate — turned to ancient texts to produce artemesinin, a drug that is now the top treatment for malaria. Inspired by traditional Chinese medicine, Tu discovered that a compound from the wormwood plant was highly effective against the malaria par- asite, while working on a project for the Chinese military during the Cultural Revolution.

She will share the 8 million Swedish kronor (about $960,000) award with Japanese microbiol- ogist Satoshi Omura and William Campbell, an Irish-born U.S. scientist.

Omura and Campbell created the drug aver-mectin, whose derivatives have nearly rid the planet of river blindness and lymphatic filarisis, diseases caused by parasitic worms and spread by mosquitos and flies. They affect people in Africa, Latin America and Asia, leaving suffers blind or disfigured.

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.