Hepatitis D is a type of viral hepatitis caused by the hepatitis delta virus (HDV). HDV is one of five known hepatitis viruses:A,B,C,D,and E. HDV is considered to be a satellite because it can propagate only in the presence of the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Transmission of HDV can occur either via simultaneous infection with HBV (coinfection) or superimposed on chronic hepatitis B or hepatitis B carrier state (superinfection).
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH),an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's mission is to conduct basic and applied research to better understand,treat,and prevent infectious,immunologic,and allergic diseases.
Maurice Ralph Hilleman was a leading American microbiologist who specialized in vaccinology and developed over 40 vaccines,an unparalleled record of productivity. According to one estimate,his vaccines save nearly eight million lives each year. He has been described as one of the most influential vaccinologists ever.
Harvey James Alter is an American medical researcher,virologist,physician and Nobel Prize laureate,who is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Alter is the former chief of the infectious disease section and the associate director for research of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda,Maryland. In the mid-1970s,Alter and his research team demonstrated that most post-transfusion hepatitis cases were not due to hepatitis A or hepatitis B viruses. Working independently,Alter and Edward Tabor,a scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,proved through transmission studies in chimpanzees that a new form of hepatitis,initially called "non-A,non-B hepatitis" caused the infections,and that the causative agent was probably a virus. This work eventually led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus in 1988,for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2020 along with Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice.
Albert Zaven Kapikian (1930–2014) was an Armenian-American virologist who developed the first licensed vaccine against rotavirus,the most common cause of severe diarrhea in infants. He was awarded the Sabin Gold Medal for his pioneering work on the vaccine. He is the 13th recipient of this recognition,awarded annually by the Sabin Vaccine Institute. Called the father of human gastroenteritis virus research,Kapikian identified the first norovirus,initially called Norwalk virus,in 1972;and he and his colleagues at the National Institutes of Health identified the hepatitis A virus in 1973.
Medical microbiology,the large subset of microbiology that is applied to medicine,is a branch of medical science concerned with the prevention,diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. In addition,this field of science studies various clinical applications of microbes for the improvement of health. There are four kinds of microorganisms that cause infectious disease:bacteria,fungi,parasites and viruses,and one type of infectious protein called prion.
Hepatitis B vaccine is a vaccine that prevents hepatitis B. The first dose is recommended within 24 hours of birth with either two or three more doses given after that. This includes those with poor immune function such as from HIV/AIDS and those born premature. It is also recommended that health-care workers be vaccinated. In healthy people,routine immunization results in more than 95% of people being protected.
Vincent R. Racaniello is a Higgins Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is a co-author of a textbook on virology,Principles of Virology.
Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) that affects the liver;it is a type of viral hepatitis. It can cause both acute and chronic infection.
The Wadsworth Center, located in Albany,New York,is the research-intensive public health laboratory of the New York State Department of Health.
A hepatitis C vaccine,a vaccine capable of protecting against the hepatitis C virus (HCV),is not yet available. Although vaccines exist for hepatitis A and hepatitis B,development of an HCV vaccine has presented challenges. No vaccine is currently available,but several vaccines are currently under development.
Enzo Paoletti was an Italian-American virologist who developed the technology to express foreign antigens in vaccinia and other poxviruses. This advance led to the development of vaccines against multiple disease-causing pathogens.
Robert Merritt Chanock was an American pediatrician and virologist who made major contributions to the prevention and treatment of childhood respiratory infections in more than 50 years spent at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Sir Michael Houghton is a British scientist and Nobel Prize laureate. Along with Qui-Lim Choo,George Kuo and Daniel W. Bradley,he co-discovered Hepatitis C in 1989. He also co-discovered the Hepatitis D genome in 1986. The discovery of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) led to the rapid development of diagnostic reagents to detect HCV in blood supplies,which has reduced the risk of acquiring HCV through blood transfusion from one in three to about one in two million. It is estimated that antibody testing has prevented at least 40,000 new infections per year in the US alone and many more worldwide.
Stephen Mark Feinstone is a virologist who,together with Albert Kapikian and Robert Purcell,co-identified the Hepatitis A virus (HAV) in 1973.
Charles Moen Rice is an American virologist and Nobel Prize laureate whose main area of research is the hepatitis C virus. He is a professor of virology at the Rockefeller University in New York City and an adjunct professor at Cornell University and Washington University School of Medicine. At the time of the award he was a faculty at Rockefeller.
Brian R. Murphy is an American virologist and former co-chief of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
Patrizia Farci is an Italian scientist and hepatologist. She is chief of the hepatic pathogenesis section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Farci conducts translational research in the field of liver diseases,particularly in the study of pathogenesis of acute and chronic viral hepatitis. She was previously a full professor of medicine and director of the liver unit and the postgraduate school of gastroenterology at the University of Cagliari.
Xiang-Jin Meng,also known as X.J. Meng,is a Chinese-born American virologist. He is a university distinguished professor at Virginia Tech. He studies emerging,re-emerging and zoonotic viruses of veterinary and human public health significance. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2016,a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2014,and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2012.
The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the American virologists Harvey J. Alter,Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice "for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus." During the award ceremony on December 10,2020,Prof. Gunilla Karlsson-Hedestam said:
"The discovery of the Hepatitis C virus by this year’s Laureates laid the foundation for our current understanding about how the virus survives in its niche during the long chronic phase of the infection,and how liver disease develops. And importantly,it led to the development of highly effective anti-viral medicines that now cure the infection in almost all treated persons."
