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Numerous life-saving treatments have also been developed for the hepatitis C virus, many of which are used regularly today. When available, hepatitis C antivirals can stop the virus from multiplying in the body and can cure people of the infection in weeks. Researchers around the world are now working on a vaccine that could prevent future infections and diseases from the hepatitis C virus.
“For a long time, we had nothing to treat this virus with,” said Dr. Guadalupe García Tsao, a cirrhosis expert at Yale University. Preventing the disease, he added, was also nearly impossible without accurate testing. “For most of my career, it was the nightmare of my existence. But from the moment they made these discoveries, the number of sick people dropped dramatically. “
Even hepatitis C drugs that originally failed to pass the approval process have found a new use in modern times: Remdesivir, one of the few treatments with emergency clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to treat Covid patients. -19 seriously ill, it was originally developed as an antiviral against the hepatitis C virus.
“That’s really the story of investing in basic science, and it pays off later,” said Stephanie Langel, a virologist and immunologist at Duke University.
Who are the winners?
Dr. Alter, from the United States, is a medical researcher at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland. Born in 1935 in New York, he earned a medical degree from the University of Rochester before joining the NIH in 1961.
After treating some of the first “non-A, non-B” hepatitis patients decades ago, Dr. Alter expressed amazement at how treatment for the disease evolves. Modern drugs can cure more than 95 percent of patients.
“I could never have imagined this, really, not in my life,” he said Monday during an NIH news conference.
