Scientists Win Nobel Prize for River Blindness and Malaria Treatments
OSLO – Three scientists who worked on cures for river blindness, which greatly affects Africa, and malaria will share the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. The Nobel Assembly said on Monday the prize would go to William Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites, and the other half […]
OSLO – Three scientists who worked on cures for river blindness, which greatly affects Africa, and malaria will share the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
The Nobel Assembly said on Monday the prize would go to William Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites, and the other half of the prize to Youyou Tu for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria.
“This year’s Nobel Laureates have developed therapies that have revolutionized the treatment of some of the most devastating parasitic diseases”, the Assembly said in a statement.
“These two discoveries have provided humankind with powerful new means to combat these debilitating diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people annually. The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffering are immeasurable.”
Campbell and Ōmura discovered a new drug, Avermectin, the derivatives of which have radically lowered the incidence of river blindness – also known as onchocerciasis – and lymphatic filariasis (or elephantiasis), as well as showing efficacy against an expanding number of other parasitic diseases.
Tu discovered Artemisinin, a drug that has significantly reduced the mortality rates for patients suffering from malaria, the institute said.
According to the World Health Organisation, onchocerciasis is an eye and skin disease caused by a worm (filaria) known scientifically as Onchocerca volvulus. It is transmitted to humans through the bite of a blackfly (simulium species). These flies breed in fast-flowing streams and rivers, increasing the risk of blindness to individuals living nearby, hence the commonly known name of “river blindness”.
At least 90 percent of the world’s river blindness occurs in Africa, WHO says. In some West African communities, about 50 percent of men over the age of 40 had been blinded by the disease. Finally, people fled the fertile river valleys to settle in less productive upland country. The annual economic losses were estimated, in the 1970s, at $30 million.
The Irish-born Campbell is a Research Fellow Emeritus at Drew University in the United States, while Ōmura has been Professor Emeritus at Kitasato University in Japan since 2007. From 2000, Tu has been Chief Professor at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
River blindness ultimately leads to blindness, because of chronic inflammation in the cornea. Lymphatic filariasis, afflicting more than 100 million people, causes chronic swelling and leads to life-long stigmatizing and disabling clinical symptoms, including elephantiasis (Lymphedema) and Scrotal Hydrocele.
The Nobel Institute said that more than 3.4 billion of the world’s most vulnerable citizens are at risk of contracting malaria, and each year it claims more than 450 000 lives, predominantly among children.