Nobel Prize for Medicine 2015 for researchers against parasites

Scientists from Ireland, Japan and China have won this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discoveries related to the treatment of infections caused by parasitic roundworms and malaria.

Research on parasites won the 2015 Nobel Prize

Scientist William C. Campbell , from Ireland, and Satoshi Ōmura , a Japanese national, invented a new drug called Avermectin , which lowered the number of River Blindness and lymphatic filariasis (Lymphatic Filariasis). These are two diseases caused by parasites. According to the Nobel Council, Avermectin is also effective for some other parasitic diseases.

Nobel Council announced the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine 2015. (Photo: Fredrik Sandberg / AP).

Chinese scientist Youyou Tu is the creator of Artemisinin , a drug that significantly reduces the incidence of mortality in malaria patients.

The Nobel committee said the findings "have given people new effective measures to fight the diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people every year."

Portrait of three scientists who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine (Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP).

Campbell is an honorary graduate student at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, USA. Ōmura is an honorary professor at Kitasato University, Japan. Tu is a professor at the Traditional Medicine Institute of China.

The Nobel Prize for Medicine worth $ 953.5 million is awarded to individuals with outstanding discoveries that help improve understanding of life and medicine. The award was made by the Nobel Council at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.