Harvey J. Alter

Harvey J. Alter

Harvey James Alter (born September 12, 1935) is an American medical researcher, virologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate, who is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Alter is the former chief of the infectious disease section and the associate director for research of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. In the mid-1970s, Alter and his research team demonstrated that most post-transfusion hepatitis cases were not due to hepatitis A or hepatitis B viruses. Working independently, Alter and Edward Tabor, a scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, proved through transmission studies in chimpanzees that a new form of hepatitis, initially called "non-A, non-B hepatitis" caused the infections, and that the causative agent was probably a virus. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Harvey J. Alter is the 108th most popular physician (up from 144th in 2019), the 848th most popular biography from United States (up from 1,086th in 2019) and the 9th most popular American Physician.

Harvey J. Alter is an American medical researcher who is famous for his contributions to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Along with his colleagues, Alter demonstrated that a significant number of cases of chronic hepatitis were not caused by hepatitis A or B viruses, and he eventually identified the previously unknown hepatitis C virus as the cause of these cases. His discovery led to the development of new diagnostic tests and treatments for hepatitis C, which has had a major impact on public health worldwide. Alter was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2020 for his work on the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.