ASTMH congratulates Nobel Prize winners

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) is very pleased to offer its congratulations to the three outstanding scientists who received this year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine: ASTMH member William C. Campbell, Satoshi Omura and Youyou Tu. Dr. Campbell and Dr. Omura were awarded for their discovery of a new drug to treat infections caused by roundworm parasites. The Nobel Prize was also awarded to Dr. Tu for her work using traditional herbal medicine to find a new kind of antimalarial agent.

“Sometimes the Nobel Prize is awarded for a brilliant discovery that advances basic science in a way that may someday result in a tangible benefit to mankind. This year's Prize recognizes scientists who isolated compounds from bacteria and plants and developed them into drugs that have saved countless lives from malaria and prevented millions of cases of blindness and disfiguring swelling from parasitic worms worldwide,” said Christopher V. Plowe, MD, President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), and Director, Institute for Global Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine. “These three scientists have had a massive positive impact on global health. This was a great choice by the Nobel Committee.”