French AIDS researcher Francoise Barre Sinoussi reacts in Cambodia after
receiving news of her Nobel Prize win.

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA (OCTOBER 7, 2008) REUTERS -
A French scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine said
on Tuesday (October 7) it presented an opportunity to remind politicians
around the world of the HIV/AIDS virus.
Two French scientists who discovered the AIDS virus and a German who
bucked conventional wisdom to find a virus that causes cervical cancer were
awarded the 2008 Nobel prize for medicine on Monday (October 6).
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 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.4 million) for discovering the virus
that has killed 25 million people since it was identified in the 1980s.
"It was a big surprise for me yesterday. I was quite far from
expecting during this trip to Phnom Penh. I must admit that I had even
forgotten that it was the nomination period for the Nobel Prizes. I am, of
course, extremely honoured and grateful today knowing I have received this
nomination along with Professor Montagnier. The nomination made me think of
the whole team who worked to discover the AIDS virus," Barre-Sinoussi
said during an interview in Phnom Penh.
Dr. Harald zur Hausen of the University of Duesseldorf and a former
director of the German Cancer Research Center shared the other half of the
prize for work that went against the established opinion about the cause of
cervical cancer.
The discoveries made it possible to diagnose both infections, and led
to the development of two vaccines that prevent cervical cancer, and more than
20 drugs that can keep HIV patients healthy.
But Barre-Sinoussi said the prize offered an opportunity to remind
politicians about the epidemic.
"For me, this nomination, this prize, I perceive it as an
exceptional occasion to get a message through to politicians in my country,
France and politicians generally, concerning HIV/AIDS, concerning the epidemic
which remains in the world," she said.
The award is a decisive vote for Montagnier in a long-running dispute
over who discovered and identified the virus, Montagnier or Dr. Robert Gallo,
then of the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
Medicine is traditionally the first of the Nobel prizes awarded each
year. The prizes for achievement in science, literature and peace were first
awarded in 1901 in accordance with the will of dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.