Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Newsletter No.15May 2019
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Laureates of the Third Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Decided!
On April 25, 2019, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced the laureates of the Third Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize.
Medical Research Category
Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum (Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC))
General Director, National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) and Professor of Medical Microbiology/Virology, Faculty of Medicine, University of KinshasaHe is awarded for his research to confront Ebola and other deadly viruses and efforts to train legions of disease-fighters.
Medical Services Category
Dr. Francis Gervase Omaswa(Republic of Uganda)
Executive Director of African Center for Global Health and Social Transformation (ACHEST)He is awarded for his dedication to addressing the global health workforce (HWF) crisis including education, training, retention and migration of healthcare workers and for building pro-people health and medical systems not only across Africa, but worldwide.
Message from Chairperson of the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Committee
Dr. Kiyoshi KUROKAWA
The Government of Japan has announced the two laureates of the Third Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize.
The Prize aims to honor individuals or organizations with outstanding achievements in the fields of medical research and medical services to combat infectious and other diseases in Africa, thus contributing to the health and welfare of the African people and of all humankind.
For the medical research category, Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum has been decided as the laureate, and for the medical services category, Dr. Francis Gervase Omaswa has been decided as the laureate.
On behalf of everyone involved in the selection of candidates for the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize, I would like to honor the outstanding achievements of the two laureates and extend my sincerest congratulations to them.
The laureates of the Prize are selected through fair and in-depth discussions. First, candidates were nominated by the related parties of universities, research institutions, academic societies and experts from around the world, through invitation for nomination.
Given such nominations, the Medical Research Sub-Committee (Chairperson: Dr. Kiyoshi KITA, Dean, School of Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nagasaki University) and the Medical Services Sub-Committee (Chairperson: Dr. Tadataka Yamada, former President of the Global Health Program at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), both of which consist of domestic and foreign experts, narrowed down the candidates. Based on the results thereof, this March, a unanimous decision was reached finding Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum and Dr. Francis Gervase Omaswa to be the most suitable candidates for the Prize. Accordingly, they were recommended as possible laureates to the Prime Minister who approved it and they were decided as the laureates.
Following the first award in 2008 and the second award in 2013, we have been able to select wonderful laureates for the third award. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to everyone who has been involved in the selection.
Biographies and Achievements
Medical Research Category
Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum
Born in the DRC in 1942.
Obtained M.D. at University of Lovanium (present University of Kinshasa), and Ph.D. (Medicine/Virology) at Rega Institute for Medical Research, Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium).
Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum has for more than five decades displayed outstanding courage, intelligence and scientific rigor in research and training in the DRC. In particular, in 1976 he identified the existence of a previously unknown disease in his country, collected blood and tissue samples under dangerous conditions, and forwarded them to the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium where the Ebola virus was discovered. Since 1976 Dr. Muyembe-Tamfum has been on the front lines of Ebola research, identifying nosocomial and burial transmission as two of the major causes of disease transmission, contributing to vaccine research, developing antisera therapy and training a new generation of disease responders and Congolese laboratory scientists.
Message from Dr. Muyembe-Tamfum
The news that I was the winner of the Hideyo Noguchi Award for 2019, had reached me when I was on the ground in Butembo as part of the response against Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), which is hitting Congolese provinces of North Kivu and Ituri since August 2018.
Two contradictory feelings had immediately invaded my person: my sadness about this deadly epidemic that has lasted for seven months and my great joy to receive the prestigious Hideyo Noguchi Prize that I accept with all my heart, with a deep gratitude to the selection committee which has chosen my humble person as a laureate. I am very proud of it. This prize is the culmination of my 50-years of scientific career in the DRC, often in a very difficult environment.
This award is fruitful and a strong message that will grow medical research not only in my country, the DRC, but also in all African countries.
That all the African, European, and Japanese scientific institutions that have collaborated with me, find here the expression of my unfailing friendship.
Dr. Muyembe-Tamfum working in the lab
Dr. Muyembe-Tamfum with a survivor (woman) of Kikwit Ebola outbreak, 1995
Medical Services Category
Dr. Francis Gervase Omaswa
Born in the Republic of Uganda in 1943.
Obtained MBChB at University of East Africa, Makerere Medical School, and Master of Medicine in Surgery at Makerere University.
Dr. Francis Gervase Omaswa gave up practicing heart surgery in London to return to Africa starting with the Republic of Kenya and then the Republic of Uganda, building clinical and surgical capacities in his home continent and country. Over the three decades since, Dr. Omaswa has become a world leader in development of international systems for the support, training and efficient utilization of health workforces particularly on the African continent. He led the drafting and convening the First Global Forum on HWF and inspiring the adoption of the Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action that now guides the global response. Dr. Omaswa has brought wisdom to the global stage, serving on the boards of Global Stop TB Partnership, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Independent Review Committee of GAVI – the Vaccine Alliance and as founder and Executive Director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance.
Today he leads multiple efforts aimed at creating health systems and workforces that can propel Africa towards realization of the “Health for All” aspirations of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Message from Dr. Omaswa
I am delighted and humbled. I thank the Government of Japan, Government and People of Uganda, my wife and family, friends and colleagues for the support and partnership over the years.
I call upon all Ugandan, African and people everywhere to serve willingly, diligently and selflessly knowing that the world is always watching us.
Dr. Omaswa at the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in March 2008, Kampala, Uganda.
Dr. Omaswa at the launch of the AFREHealth in Nairobi, Kenya, August 2017.
■The awarding ceremony of the Third Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize■
The awarding ceremony of the Third Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize hosted by Prime Minister will be organized on August 30 in Tokyo on the occasion of the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7) to be held in Yokohama from August 28 to 30 with African leaders’ participation.
Picture: A scene from the Second Awarding Ceremony and Commemorative Banquet
held in 2013
Dr. Hideyo Noguchi’s birthplace was registered as a ‘registered tangible cultural property.'
On March 29, 2019, Dr. Hideyo Noguchi’s birthplace was registered as a “registered tangible cultural property (structures)” of Japan.
At the Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Museum located in Inawashiro Town, Fukushima Prefecture, which is the hometown of Hideyo Noguchi, his birthplace, which is kept in the same state as when he was born, is preserved and exhibited unchanged in the very place.
We recommend you take this opportunity to visit Dr. Hideyo Noguchi’s birthplace!
(Pictures supplied by: Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Foundation)
Dr. Hideyo Noguchi’s birthplace
The fireplace is also preserved unchanged
Efforts of donations
(Tamagawa Academy & University)
Tamagawa Academy & University has been making donations to the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize, using the monthly sales from some of the vending machines installed on the campus of Tamagawa University, since 2018. A poster is put up on the relevant vending machine as shown in the picture.
Tamagawa Academy & University has a connection with Dr. Noguchi: it presented a bronze statue of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi to the University of Merida (current Autonomous University of Yucatan) O’Horan Hospital located in Merida city, Mexico, in 1961.
We would like to thank them for their cooperation in the donations to the Prize.
(Pictures supplied by: Tamagawa Academy & University)
The bronze statue of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi presented to O’Horan Hospital
Vending machine installed on the campus of Tamagawa University
Invitation for Donations
for the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Fund
As part of the prize money to be awarded for this prize, we are inviting donations widely from those who support the idea of this prize. Your goodwill donations will be used to support the activities of people who are playing active roles in improving medical research and medical services in Africa.
About inquiries for donations, please contact Citizen Participation Promotion Division, Domestic Strategy and Partnership Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
E-MAIL : jicata-kifu1@jica.go.jp
- Donations to Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize (as of March 2019)
522,319,527YEN [Individual: 2,004，Corporation or Foundation: 347 (TOTAL2,351)]
Donation in 2018: 615,097YEN [Individual: 10，Corporation or Foundation: 13 (TOTAL23)]