October, 5, 2015
Nobel Prize in Medicine 2015. Three scientists were awarded by their work against Malaria and roundworm. Photo by Agência Brasil
Three scientists from Ireland, Japan and China have won the Nobel prize in medicine for discoveries that helped doctors fight malaria and infections caused by roundworm parasites.
Youyou Tu discovered one of the most effective treatments for malaria while working on a secret military project during China’s Cultural Revolution.
The 84-year-old pharmacologist was awarded half of the prestigious 8m Swedish kronor (£631,000) prize for her discovery of artemisinin, a drug that proved to be an improvement on chloroquine, which had become far less effective as the malaria parasites developed resistance.
Two other researchers, 80-year-old Satoshi Ōmura, an expert in soil microbes at Kitasato University, and William Campbell, an Irish-born parasitologist at Drew University in New Jersey, share the other half of the prize, for the discovery of avermectin, a treatment for roundworm parasites.
Together, the scientists have transformed the lives of millions of people in the developing world, where parasitic diseases that cause illness and death are most rife. Read the full story.
Related articles already published in HCS-Manguinhos:
Grisotti, Márcia and Avila-Pires, Fernando Dias. Worms, slugs and humans: the medical and popular construction of an emerging infectious disease. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, Sept 2011, vol.18, no.3, p.877-892. ISSN 0104-5970
Cueto, Marcos. La “cultura de la sobrevivencia” y la salud pública internacional en América Latina: la Guerra Fría y la erradicación de enfermedades a mediados del siglo XX. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, Mar 2015, vol.22, no.1, p.255-273. ISSN 0104-5970
Silva, Renato da and Paiva, Carlos Henrique Assunção. The Juscelino Kubitschek government and the Brazilian Malaria Control and Eradication Working Group: collaboration and conflicts in Brazilian and international health agenda, 1958-1961. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, Mar 2015, vol.22, no.1, p.95-114. ISSN 0104-5970
Nussenzweig, Ruth Sonntag. Breakthroughs towards a malaria vaccine. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, June 2011, vol.18, no.2, p.559-564. ISSN 0104-5970
Gachelin, Gabriel and Opinel, Annick. Malaria epidemics in Europe after the First World War: the early stages of an international approach to the control of the disease. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, June 2011, vol.18, no.2, p.431-470. ISSN 0104-5970
Estrada Orrego, Victoria and Márquez Valderrama, Jorge. Etiología parasitaria y obstáculos epistemológicos: el caso de la malaria en Colombia. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, Mar 2007, vol.14, no.1, p.91-118. ISSN 0104-5970
