Nobel Prize for the Discovery of Hepatitis B and C: A Brief History in Time

Mamun Al-Mahtab; Partho P Roy; Md Sakirul I Khan; Sheikh Mf Akbar

doi:10.5005/jp-journals-10018-1328

Nobel Prize for the Discovery of Hepatitis B and C: A Brief History in Time

Euroasian J Hepatogastroenterol. 2020 Jul-Dec;10(2):98-100. doi: 10.5005/jp-journals-10018-1328.

Authors

Mamun Al-Mahtab¹, Partho P Roy², Md Sakirul I Khan³, Sheikh Mf Akbar^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hepatology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
² Shaheed Suhrawardi Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
³ Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Ehime, Japan.
⁴ Department of Gastroenterology and Metabology, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Toon, Ehime, Japan.
⁵ Miyakawa Memorial Research Foundation, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

In 2020, the Noble Prize for Medicine jointly went to three scientists for hepatitis C virus-related discoveries. Earlier in 1976, an American scientist won this award for the discovery of hepatitis B virus. The Noble Prize, constituted as per the will of Alfred Noble, is awarded every year for achievements that benefit human beings in the best possible way. Although humans have known hepatitis as a deadly disease for hundreds of years, it was the discovery of hepatitis B and C viruses that changed the way we knew the hepatitis viruses forever and paved the way for saving millions of lives all over the world, the reason why the Noble Committee has on two different occasions picked up the great minds behind the discovery of these two hepatitis viruses and recognized them by conferring them with the highest recognition that one dreams of. How to cite this article: Al-Mahtab M, Roy PP, Khan MSI, et al. Nobel Prize for the Discovery of Hepatitis B and C: A Brief History in Time. Euroasian J Hepatogastroenterol 2020;10(2):98-100.

Keywords: Hepatitis B virus; Hepatitis C virus; Nobel prize.

Publication types

Review