STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) — The 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine has been jointly awarded to Ireland's William C. Campbell, Japan's Satoshi Omura, and China's Youyou Tu, Secretary General for the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute Urban Lenda announced Monday.
The Nobel Assembly awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with one half jointly to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites, and the other half to Youyou Tu for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.
"The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute has today awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with one half jointly to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites, and the other half to Youyou Tu for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria," Lendahl said.
"The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffering are immeasurable," the committee’s press release underscored.
Parasitic diseases have plagued humankind for millennia. River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis, caused by parasitic worms, lead to blindness and life-long disabling clinical symptoms. Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease caused by single-cell parasites, claims more than 450,000 lives annually, predominantly among children, with 3.4 billion people living with the risk of contracting it every day.
