STOCKHOLM (AP) — Latest developments in the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Medicine (all times local):
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12:55 p.m.
A member of the Nobel Prize committee says the work of the 2015 medicine laureates could help eliminate diseases affecting 3.4 billion people.
Jan Andersson says that as a result of the laureates’ discoveries, the World Health Organization now has a plan aimed at eradicating river blindness in the 31 countries where the disease is endemic by 2025. He says the WHO also hopes to eradicate elephantiasis in 61 of the 81 countries affected by 2020.
He says that partly as a result of Tu Youyou’s discovery, the mortality from malaria has been reduced by 50 percent in the last 10 years, and the number of infections has been cut by 40 percent. Andersson says the WHO now hopes to eliminate malaria in 35 countries by 2035.
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12:45 p.m.
Satoshi Omura says he wonders whether he deserved to share in the Noble Prize in Medicine.
Omura and William Campbell were cited for discovering a drug that has helped lower the incidence of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, two diseases caused by parasitic worms.
In a televised interview on Japan’s national broadcaster NHK, Omura commented: “I have learned so much from microorganisms and I have depended on them, so I would much rather give the prize to microorganisms.”
He added: “This is kind of a low-profile research area, but microorganisms are extremely important for humans. They can be our partners. I hope the area gets more attention because of the prize so that it can further contribute to human beings.”
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12:05 p.m.
Nobel Prize committee member Hans Forssberg says the discoveries of the 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine winners have fundamentally changed the treatments of hundreds of millions of the most vulnerable people in the world.
Forsberg says Tu Youyou’s discovery has “markedly reduced the death toll during the last decade” from malaria, while discoveries by William Campbell and Satoshi Omura have contributed to dramatically reducing the number of individuals affected each year from “the stigmatizing and disabling symptoms” of river blindness and elphentiasis.
Forssberg says the discoveries represent a paradigm shift in medicine that also has a positive effect on society as a whole.
He says: “By allowing children to go to school and adults to go to work the treatment helps them to avoid poverty and contributes to an economic boost in society.
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