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ByKarlRitter and Malin Rising TheAssociatedPress STOCKHOLM A Chinese scientist who turned to ancient texts to discover a powerful malaria drug shared the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday with American and Japanese re- searchers whose discoveries have raised hopes of elim- inating other tropical dis- eases. Tu Youyou — the first- ever Chinese medicine lau- reate — will share the 8 mil- lion Swedish kronor (about $960,000) award with Japa- nese microbiologist Satoshi Omura and William Camp- bell, an Irish-born U.S. sci- entist. Tu was cited for discov- ering artemisinin, a drug that's now the primary treatment against malaria, saving millions of lives worldwide. Inspired by Chinese traditional medi- cine, she made her discov- ery while working on a ma- laria project for the Chinese military. Omura and Campbell discovered another drug, avermectin, whose deriva- tives have helped fight river blindness and lymphatic fil- ariasis. Those diseases are caused by parasitic worms and affect millions of peo- ple in Africa and Asia. The Nobel committee said the winners, who are all in their 80s and made their breakthroughs in the 1970s and '80s, had given humankind powerful tools to combat debilitating dis- eases. "The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffer- ing are immeasurable," the committee said. Campbell, 85, is a re- search fellow emeritus at Drew University in Madi- son, New Jersey. He told the AP he made his main dis- covery in 1975 while work- ing at pharmaceutical com- pany Merck. "It was a great team ef- fort by the people at Merck and Company," said Camp- bell, who now lives in North Andover, Massachusetts. He said the award came as a "huge surprise." Omura, 80, is a profes- sor emeritus at Kitasato University in Japan and is from the central prefec- ture of Yamanashi. He won- dered whether he deserved the prize. "I have learned so much from microorganisms and I have depended on them, so I would much rather give the prize to microor- ganisms," Omura told Jap- anese broadcaster NHK. Working in the 1970s, Omura isolated new strains of Streptomyces bacteria and cultured them so that they could be analyzed for their impact against harm- ful microorganisms, the No- bel committee said. Omura said the crucial strain was found in a soil sample from a golf course near Tokyo. He said he al- ways carries around a plas- tic bag in his wallet so he can collect soil samples. Campbell showed that one of those cultures was remarkably efficient against parasites in animals, the committee said. The bioac- tive agent was purified and modified to a compound that effectively killed para- sitic larvae, leading to the discovery of new class of drugs. Today they are consid- ered a highly effective treat- ment against river blind- ness and lymphatic filaria- sis, the committee said. River blindness is an eye and skin disease that ulti- mately leads to blindness. About 90 percent of the dis- ease occurs in Africa, ac- cording to the World Health Organization. Lymphatic filariasis can lead to swelling of the limbs and genitals, called ele- phantiasis, and it's primar- ily a threat in Africa and Asia. WHO says 120 million people are infected with the disease, with about 40 mil- lion disfigured and incapac- itated. Tu, 84, is a researcher at the China Academy of Chi- nese Medical Sciences. As a junior researcher, she was recruited by the Chinese government to work on a military proj- ect in 1969 to find malaria drugs. She turned to herbal medicine to discover a new malarial agent in an extract from the sweet wormwood plant. The agent, artemis- inin (pronounced ar-tuh- MIHS'-ihn-ihn), was highly effective against malaria, a disease that was on the rise in the 1960s, the committee said. Malaria is a mosquito- borne disease that still kills around 500,000 peo- ple a year, mostly in Africa, despite efforts to control it. Colin Sutherland, reader in parasitology at Lon- don School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that the impact of artemesinin had been profound. It's so widely used across the world that there's a risk of resistance problems. "The writing is on the wall already. We probably have about five to 10 years of effective use of arteme- sinins before resistance becomes a problem," he said. WHO says artemisinin resistance has already been confirmed in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. There have been several previous Nobel Prizes for malaria research, includ- ing the 1902 award to Brit- ish army surgeon Ronald Ross, who discovered the disease is transmitted by mosquitos. The last time a Chinese citizen won a Nobel was in 2012, when Mo Yan got the literature award. But China has been yearning for a No- bel Prize in science. This was the first Nobel Prize given to a Chinese scientist for work carried out within China. "This is indeed a glo- rious moment," said Li Chenjian, a vice provost at prestigious Peking Uni- versity. "This also is an ac- knowledgement to the tra- ditional Chinese medicine, for the work began with herbal medicine." Stephen Ward, deputy di- rector of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said the prize confirms that Chi- nese scientists "did fantas- tic work in the 1960s even when they were effectively ignored by the rest of the world." The medicine award was the first Nobel Prize to be announced. The win- ners of the physics, chem- istry and peace prizes are set to be announced later this week. The economics prize will be announced next Monday. No date has been set yet for the liter- ature prize, but it is ex- pected to be announced on Thursday. Besides the cash prize, each winner also gets a diploma and a gold medal at the annual award cere- mony on Dec. 10, the an- niversary of the death of prize founder Alfred No- bel. DISCOVERIES 3shareNobelmedicineprizefortropicaldiseasedrugs ASSOCIATEDPRESSPHOTOS Scientist William C. Campbell, le , smiles as he is serenaded by neighbor John Truman, a bagpipe player with Clan MacPherson, outside his home in North Andover, Mass. Campbell is one of three scientists from the U.S., Japan and China who won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering drugs to fight malaria and other tropical diseases. Scientist William C. Campbell talks in his home in North Andover, Mass. The Associated Press CHICAGO Injuries from zip line accidents have soared along with the popularity of an activity that hurtles rid- ers through the air, some- times at dizzying heights above ground, a study of U.S. emergency room data shows. Over 16 years, nearly 17,000 people were treated for zip line-related injuries including broken bones, cuts and sprains; most oc- curred in the last four years of the 1997-2012 study. It's the first national look at zip line injuries and highlights a need for better regulation and uniform safety stan- dards, the researchers say. The study was published Monday in the American Journal of Emergency Med- icine. Deaths were not in- cluded — there have been at least six nationwide this year, most from falls. The researchers ana- lyzed a national injury da- tabase operated by the Con- sumer Product Safety Com- mission. Their study covers the early years of commer- cial zip lines, which now number more than 200 na- tionwide. There are thou- sands more "amateur" zip lines, located in backyards, summer camps and schools. Most injuries occurred at commercial courses, camps and other non-residen- tial places. About 30 per- cent were from zip lines in backyards or farms. 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