British scientist and Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Michael Houghton is a world-renowned virologist whose groundbreaking contributions to medical science have had a transformative impact on global health. His discovery of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 1989, along with fellow researchers including current Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) colleague Dr Choo Qui-Lim (朱桂林), Dr George Kuo Ching-Hung (郭勁宏) and Dr Daniel W Bradley, used a complementary DNA library containing non-A and non-B hepatitis viruses to identify a DNA clone derived from the HCV RNA genome. Their discovery of HCV not only revolutionized contemporary understandings of viral infections but also paved the way for appreciable advancements in blood transfusion medicine, including life-saving diagnostics for blood screening during the early 1990s. These latter led directly to the rapid prevention of millions of infections and deaths worldwide. The use of diagnostic reagents in blood supplies Sir Michael pioneered for HCV has virtually eradicated the risk of acquiring HCV through blood transfusion. By 1992, the virus had been virtually eliminated from the North American blood supply; this, in turn, led to a reduction in annual reported transmission by more than 80 per cent in 1996. Today, the transmission rate of HCV from blood donors has been reduced to a statistically insignificant incidence rate of less than one in two million.
