Work

Hepatitis is a group of diseases that cause inflammation of the liver. It can be caused by different viruses that are transmitted through blood. After Harvey Alter had demonstrated that a previously unknown virus transmitted the disease, Michael Houghton and his colleagues were able to isolate the virus’s genome in 1989. The virus turned out to be an RNA virus from the Flavivirus family and was given the name the hepatitis C virus. The finding was an important step in developing blood tests and new medications that have saved millions of lives.