STOCKHOLM, Oct 6: Two French scientists who discovered the Aids virus and a German who found the virus that causes cervical cancer were awarded the 2008 Nobel prize for medicine on Monday.

Luc Montagnier, director of the World Foundation for Aids Research and Prevention, and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi of the Institut Pasteur won half the prize of $1.4 million for discovering the virus that has killed 25 million people since it was identified in the 1980s.

Harald zur Hausen of the University of Duesseldorf and a former director of the German Cancer Research Centre shared the other half of the prize for work that went against the conventional wisdom about the cause of cervical cancer.

“The three laureates have discovered two new viruses of great importance and the result of that has led to an improved global health,” said Jan Andersson, a member of the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.

Mr Montagnier told Reuters in Ivory Coast, where he was holding a lecture, that the award sent a strong message. “It comes at a time when much progress has been done in research, but not enough because the epidemic is still there. We are in Africa. Many infected people do not have access to medicine.”

The award is a decisive vote for Mr Montagnier in a long-running dispute over who discovered and identified the virus, he or Dr Robert Gallo, then of the US National Cancer Institute.

Ms Barre-Sinoussi said in an interview with RTL radio: “It is a conflict to be forgotten. It is also true that American teams were important in the discovery of the virus, and that should be recognised.”

President Nicolas Sarkozy noted it was the first medicine Nobel to be awarded to a French research team since 1980: “This Nobel prize is an honour for the entirety of French and European medicine and biomedical research.”

The French researchers found the virus infected and killed immune cells called lymphocytes from both diseased and healthy donors. Their findings also helped explain how HIV damaged the immune system and made possible the design of drugs that can now keep patients healthy.

Mr Zur Hausen was recognised for research based on his idea that human papilloma virus, or HPV, caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women.

The German scientist, who began his research in the 1970s, searched for different HPV types, detecting them in cervical cancer biopsies. The virus types he identified are found in about 70 per cent of cervical tumours around the world. “More than five per cent of all cancers worldwide are caused by persistent infection with this virus,” the Nobel assembly said.—Reuters