Introductory Remarks by Dr.Kiyoshi Kurokawa

U Thant Conference Hall, The United Nations University
29 May 2008, Tokyo

Professor Greenwood, Professor Were, distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman,

May I first express my heartfelt congratulations to the two laureates of the inaugural Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize. I had the honor of attending the award ceremony in Yokohama yesterday, graced by the presence of their Majesties the Emperor and Empress, Prime Minister Fukuda and more than forty-three heads of state and government of Africa. The video that you just saw was the highlights, but it captures the noble start of a new history of Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize.

Today we have the privilege of hearing from the laureates an exciting story about Africa from their respective unique experience. Prior to the lecture, i wish to explain briefly the historical context in which the prize was conceived and the background of two laureates.

The eponymous Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize succeeds his unfulfilled aspiration to recognize outstanding achievements in the field of medical research and health services in Africa - a region on the globe most in need for solutions to medical and health challenges.

In the span of 80 years since Hideyo Noguchi died of yellow fever in Ghana on May 21st, 1928, human knowledge and social welfare have progressed by leaps and bounds. However, human sufferings and social inequities have lingered and, if anything, are deepening. Pressing issues in the new century include ever increasing energy needs associated with climate crisis, shortage of water, food and other natural resources, and widening North-South disparity of the world. Global health is one such issue of comparable magnitude; one should be reminded that four of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) relate to health.

If we are to see through the challenges of MDGs , we need to redirect the global resources, both human and financial, to the African continent.

In the 1920s, Yellow Fever research was a life risking activity. Hideyo Noguchi was at the height of his career enjoying world repute, but he ventured to travel all the way to Ghana in the prime age of fifty-one. In the selection process we considered such Noguchi Spirit an important element. The epitaph on the tombstone in Woodlawn cemetery NY reads as follows: "He lived and died for humanity through devotion to science". We can draw inspiration from this spirit of Noguchi, who was a precursor of global thinking and action. This is an important value underpinning the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize.

Let me begin with by the selection process.

We invited nominations for both categories from around the globe including all the African countries. We obtained about roughly 100 nominations by the summer of 2007. Latest autumn, the selection process started in two committees. One was since autumn of that year, the Medical Research Sub-Committee composed of 24 international juries chaired by Dr. Toyoshima Special Advisor to Research Institute of Physical and Chemical Research or RIKEN. The other was and the Medical Services Sub-Committee composed of 12 international juries chaired by Professor Makgoba of KwaZzlu Natal University. They reduced the number of candidates to three in each category by late February this year. The main selection committee chaired by myself met for a final decision in late February. We unanimously decided to recommend Professor Brian Greenwood of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Professor Miriam Were of the UZIMA Foundation, and recommended them to Prime Minister Fukuda. This recommendation was duly approved in March.

Now I would like to introduce the laureates.

Professor Brian Greenwood was born in 1938 in Manchester UK. He obtained his degrees in natural history and medicine from the University of Cambridge. He had spent more than 30 years on site in Africa including 15 years as Director of the MRC Laboratories in Gambia where he pioneered landmark research contributing to the understanding of various infectious diseases pervading Africa including Malaria. He is now the prestigious Manson Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

His bold and innovative research and translational clinical studies, involving simple but high quality methods as well as field trials of drugs and vaccines, have provided the scientific foundation to wide range of effective influential public health policies at national international levels.

His important contributions include, among others, the demonstration of the effectiveness of insecticide- treated bed-nets for control of malaria which is now the cornerstone of malaria interventions throughout the continent. The “ Olyset Net “produced by Sumitomo Chemical in the after of 20 million nets per annum and now widely used in Africa, is a technological outgrowth of this idea.

Another important aspect of Professor Greenwood’s achievements is his reinvention of field research in tropical medicine. IN its formative years well into the 1960s, tropical medicine was seen essentially as an ancillary colonial or military activity focusing on hygiene. Over the years, he reinvents it into a multi-disciplinary science founded on genuine understanding of the complex African eco-system and real-life challenges.

Over the years, Professor Greenwood has made education and support of young African scientists a central objective of his research activities. A generation of students, doctors, and clinicians who developed their careers under Professor Greenwood’s inspirational mentorship has immensely contributed to the increase in stature of medical research in Africa amongst the scientific community in general.

Next, I would like to introduce Professor Miriam Were.

Professor Were was born in 1940 in Kenya. She obtained her degree in medicine from the University of Nairobi and later a doctorate of Public Health, Health Planning and Management from John Hopkins University.

Her career spans widely including stints in Kenyan Ministry of Health and University of Nairobi. She led the field offices of UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA in Ethiopia from 1985 to 2000. She was the founding Chair of UZIMA Foundation up to 2001 and since 2003 has be serving as Chair of African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) and the National AIDS Control Council of Kenya.

Professor Were, whose efforts to bring basic medical services and health rights to woman and children in the villages of East Africa has been a source of inspiration for millions of people in Africa and the world.

For the past 40 years, Professor Were has dedicated her life to advancing the health and welfare of people of Africa through a focus on the practicalities of delivering service at a local level. The most illustrious example of her community – based approach is her ongoing work to build public toilets – which had long been shunned by rural Kenyans as instruments of white settlers – in local communities which served to improve hygiene. She also drastically raised the infant vaccination rate by organizing children into small groups to visit local clinics. Her innovation and systematic precedents have had enduring impacts not only in Kenya but throughout the East African region and across the entire continent.

Her pioneering work to galvanize communities to combat HIV/AIDS, which has become a serious health and social problem in Kenya, enabled Kenya to consistently register a reduction of HIV prevalence and AIDS – related mortality.

As a chairperson of Africa’s largest health NGO, AMREF, Professor Were has successfully harnessed the power of civil society to expand medical services to rural communities. “Mama Miriam “, as she is called in Kenya, is loved and respected by all walks of life in Africa.