Three European scientist won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine for research in HIV-AIDS and the human papilloma virus linked to human cervical cancer. On Monday 6 October 2008, the Nobel Foundation released this statement:

"The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2008 with one half to Harald zur Hausen for his discovery of 'human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer' and the other half jointly to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for their discovery of 'human immunodeficiency virus'."