SWEDEN: Australians Barry Marshall and Robin Warren have won the 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine for their discovery that a bacterium causes gastritis and stomach ulcers, according to the Nobel Assembly of Stockholm's Karolinska Institute.
They made the "remarkable and unexpected discovery" in 1982 that the stomach inflammation known as gastritis and ulceration of the stomach and duodenum, known as peptic ulcer disease, are caused by the bacterium helicobacter pylori, the assembly said.
The bacterium causes more than 90 per cent of duodenal ulcers and up to 80 per cent of gastric ulcers. About two-thirds of the world's population is infected with H pylori but most people never suffer any symptoms. It predisposes people to stomach cancer.
"Thanks to the pioneering discovery by Prof Marshall and Dr Warren, peptic ulcer disease is no longer a chronic, frequently disabling condition, but a disease that can be cured by a short regimen of antibiotics and acid secretion inhibitors," the Nobel Assembly said in a statement yesterday.
Before the discovery, stress and lifestyle factors were considered the major causes of peptic ulcers.
Dr Warren and Prof Marshall share the 10 million crown (€1.08 million) prize - (Reuters)