Stockholm, Monday 6 October 6, 2008: French and German scientists credited with the discovery of the viruses behind AIDS and cervical cancer won on Monday the Nobel Medicine Prize, the first of the esteemed awards to be announced.

France’s Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, who shared one half of the award, discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, one of the biggest scourges of modern times.

Harald zur Hausen of Germany went against current dogma and claimed that human papilloma virus (HPV) causes cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women, the jury said.

The French pair’s HIV discovery was one prerequisite for the current understanding of the biology of the disease and its anti retro viral treatment, the Nobel citation said.

Their work led to development of methods to diagnose infected patients and to screen blood products, which has limited the spread of the pandemic, it said.

The combination of prevention and treatment has substantially decreased spread of the disease and dramatically increased life expectancy among treated patients, it added.
(Agency)