The 2008 Nobel Prize for medicine was awarded on Monday. Two French scientists who discovered the AIDS virus and a German who found the virus that causes cervical cancer were given the distinction, according to the organization's Web site.

Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, 61, and Luc Montagnier, 76, of France were honored "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus." The two are known for discovering the H.I.V. Virus back in 1983. The virus has killed 25 million people since it was identified in the 1980s and and 33 million more are living with it as we speak.

Barre-Sinoussi and Montagnier described the retrovirus as the first known human lentivirus based on its morphological, biochemical and immunological properties, the foundation said. The citation said: "Successful anti-retroviral therapy results in life expectancies for persons with HIV infection now reaching levels similar to those of uninfected people," according to the BBC.

Robert Gallo is another important name strongly related to the H.I.V. virus, but it seems that his status is still one of a co-discoverer, because he was not awarded the Nobel. Gallo, who runs the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland, told the Associated Press it was “a disappointment” not to be honored along with Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi. Nevertheless he didn’t deny their merit whatsoever.

Luc Montagnier, director of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi of the Institute Pasteur won half the prize of $1.4 million for being the first ones who discovered the virus. Nevertheless, according to what Francoise Barre-Sinoussi told The Associated Press, the search for a vaccine has been "a succession of failures." She sincerely explained that when they isolated the virus 25 years ago they hoped they would be able to prevent the global AIDS epidemic that followed. But the sad thing is they where still as powerless as before.

Moreover, Harald zur Hausen, 72, of the University of Duesseldorf and a former director of the German Cancer Research Centre shared the other half of the prize for his substantial contribution to finding the cause of cervical cancer. Germany's Harald zur Hausen was honored for finding human papilloma viruses (H.P.V.) that cause cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. Papilloma viruses account for more than 5 percent of all cancers worldwide. "I'm not prepared for this," zur Hausen, 72, of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg said. "We're drinking a little glass of bubbly right now."

Dr. Harald zur Hausen the first H.P.V., type 16, in 1983 from biopsies of women who had cervical cancer. A year later, Dr. Harald zur Hausen cloned H.P.V. 16 and another type, 18. The two H.P.V. types are consistently found in about 70 percent of cervical cancer biopsies throughout the world, the institute said.

The Nobel Laureates in medicine will receive their awards in Stockholm, Sweden on December 10.

The committee could have taken this certain award giving in a few different directions, but they decided in both cases to give this high distinction to the scientists who made the initial discoveries only: the initial descriptions of H.I.V. and the identification of H.P.V. as the predominant cause of cervical cancer.