http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/medicine-nobel-honors-three-scientists-discoveries-hepatitis-c-virus

The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus, one of the most common causes of liver cancer. The prize was given to Harvey Alter of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Michael Houghton of the University of Alberta in Canada, and Charles Rice of Rockefeller University in New York City.

The Hepatitis C virus is transmitted via blood and causes chronic inflammation of the liver, quietly destroying the organ over years and decades, ultimately leading to cirrhosis and cancer. Patients often end up needing a liver transplantation—or dying.