Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize
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48-52 Kurokawa:GF5 23/10/08 19:30 Page 48 Innovating for health and development Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Article by Kiyoshi Kurokawa (pictured), Chair, Hideyo Noguchi African Prize and PHOTO BY Special Advisor to the Cabinet of the Japanese Government with Tamaki Tsukada and Eri Maeda TETSUO SAKUMA n 28 May 2008 Brian Greenwood, of London School creation of wealth and social stability are some of the of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Miriam Were requirements for us, the people of Africa, to get out of the Oof National AIDS Control Council of Kenya, were indignity in which most of us live. We, the people of awarded the First Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize. Africa, believe that through this forum (TICAD) and The presentation ceremony hosted by Prime Minister Yasuo the prize outcomes will be positive for Africa”, Fukuda was attended by their Majesties the Emperor and (Miriam Were)2. Empress of Japan and hundreds of international dignitaries, The creation of the prize came out as a typical Koizumi- including more than 40 heads of state and government of the style coup de main during his visit to Africa in May 20063. It African countries participating in the Fourth Tokyo was literally a top-down initiative. Nobody at the time actually International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV). thought about the meaning, let alone the consequence, of The presentation ceremony marked the first day of the TICAD creating yet another prize in the already over-crowded IV held in Yokohama. The day happened to coincide with the international prize market. However, it turned out that this “80th anniversary plus one week” of Noguchi’s death in particular field of science – tropical medicine, public health, Ghana, 21 May 1928. or so-called translational research – lacked a proper system of The best description of the ideals of the Hideyo Noguchi reward which commanded substantial international outreach Africa Prize is perhaps the acceptance speeches of the two and legitimacy. It was precisely this area of science and laureates (excerpts as follows): research which warranted particular attention of the “Forty-three years ago, as a young man, I set off on my first international science community if we were to defeat the visit to Africa to take up an appointment at University College global health challenges. Hospital, Ibadan in Western Nigeria. At that time, this was Why do we have to constrain ourselves on a specific considered rather a strange thing to do. I had up to that point continent when a global issue like health and medicine is at done well in my medical career in England and some of my issue? Because Africa is the continent most in need of seniors in the UK considered that going to work in Africa was resources, financial or otherwise, in order to achieve the bizarre, almost a form of professional suicide for a young United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). physician. This evening is the occasion on which I have These were the founding principles and parameters which finally proved them wrong. The concept underlying the determined the framework of the new prize. The prize has set Noguchi Prize is an extremely important one as it establishes itself a totally different and radical approach on how to the point that what is sometimes considered as rather soft, recognize, inspire and shape research in a globalizing world. that is applied or field, research, is as intellectually rigorous Before going into the prize further, let us briefly review and demanding as the high technology laboratory research Hideyo Noguchi, a figure who captivated Koizumi’s that, in the past, has usually attracted the international prizes. imagination to conceive this prize. The establishment of the Noguchi Prize will help to redress this balance and the Japanese Government is to be Who is Noguchi? commended on taking this initiative”, (Brian Greenwood)1. Hideyo Noguchi (1876–1928) was a prominent Japanese “Reduction of the disease burden on the people of Africa bacteriologist in the early 20th century, internationally and improvement of health is crucial for the creation of wealth acclaimed for his contribution to the understanding of and improvement of the overall socioeconomic situation in infectious diseases4. Noguchi eventually died in Accra, Gold Africa. People who live in poverty and who are frequently sick Coast (now Ghana) of yellow fever while working in search of cannot be productive enough to improve the situation. Africa’s its pathogen5. It is said that the death of his close Rockefeller history that includes the massive transatlantic slave trade that colleague Dr Adrian Stokes of yellow fever made Noguchi disorganized the continent for nearly 500 years followed by decide to travel to Africa. It was still a decade before the virus colonialism and apartheid for a further 100 years laid the was discovered by mankind and ascertained as the pathogen. roots of poverty and disempowerment in Africa that casts a Noguchi was born in a very poor family in the long shadow into the present and future. Healthy people, impoverished rural village of Fukushima. He had a physical 48 Global Forum Update on Research for Health Volume 5 48-52 Kurokawa:GF5 23/10/08 19:30 Page 49 Innovating for health and development handicap, a deformity on his left hand due to a burn that he suffered during his early childhood. Nothwithstanding these The latter part of 2006 was consecrated to handicaps, he managed to obtain, through extraordinary establishing a truly effective business model or hard work, a licence to practise medicine in Japan. He did process in order for this prize to be competitive and exceptionally well in school but in those days, obtaining attractive in the science community as well as higher education, especially in medicine, was expensive and pertinent to the global (i.e. African) health needs exclusive. The professional horizon of a medical student from a lowly family background without a degree from the Imperial University, could not extend much further than a provincial practitioner. Noguchi was not content to remain in obscurity. In 1901, at the age of 23, Noguchi moved to the United States and made his way to the laboratory of Simon Flexner Business model or process of the prize at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1904, Flexner was It is not possible to make a simple comparison between the invited to head the newly founded Rockefeller Institute for style of research in the days of Noguchi, when researchers Medical Research (now Rockefeller University), and brought were honoured simply by discovering or isolating agents from Noguchi, his most trusted protégé, with him. In the early patients, and that of the contemporary scene where years in the institute, Noguchi earned the epithet “human conditions and requirements have become much more dynamo”, not without a racist hue. But by the 1910s he was complex. However, the field-based research style of Noguchi one of the top researchers leading the institute to world fame is increasing in its value in combating diseases in Africa. comparable to its European counterparts. In those days in There is an atavistic call for simple but high quality research the field of medicine (and to a large extent science in based on practical needs on the ground combined with a general), the United States had been playing the second deep understanding of the ecological and human factors fiddle to Europe. indigenous to Africa. His extraordinary appetite for research and zeal to conquer In May 2006, Prime Minister Koizumi announced the the cause of diseases, brought him to various places in the establishment of the prize in the joint press conference with western hemisphere in Central and South America where the President Kufuor of Ghana. After returning to Japan, Koizumi rate of death from yellow fever was particularly high. The instructed the ministries of foreign affairs, health and welfare, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research had formed a and science and education to elaborate on the concept. The special task force for South America and appointed Noguchi Cabinet Office was designated as the coordinating agency as one of its leaders. In 1918, Noguchi landed on Guayaquil, and in July 2006, in the Japan-African Union (AU) summit, Ecuador, the epicentre of this disease; his battle against the prize became the main agenda. In the joint press yellow fever thus began. In just nine days, he isolated the conference by Prime Minister Koizumi and AU Chairperson pathogen (Leptospira icteroides) and produced a vaccine and Konare it was announced that the prize will be awarded antiserum, successfully lowering the death rate. Noguchi every five years and that the first will be awarded in 2008 was worshipped as a crusader against yellow fever in places within TICAD IV. A cabinet decision was made to that effect. where he visited: Mexico, Brazil and Peru. However, it was The latter part of 2006 was consecrated to establishing a not possible at that time to identify a virus; it did not exist truly effective business model or process in order for this even in people’s imagination. However, Noguchi harboured prize to be competitive and attractive in the science some doubts about the veracity of his findings and he did community as well as pertinent to the global (i.e. African) record certain observations to this effect true to his academic health needs. conscience. That was what motivated Noguchi to set sail The first demand was to ensure diversity and for Africa. inclusiveness. Nominations will be sought from around the A prominent Rockefeller scientist travelling all the way to globe including all the 53 countries in Africa. Africa has often Africa, notwithstanding various prejudices against a non- been a non-entity in the science community.