Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Newsletter No.17April 2021

A new pamphlet on the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize has been created in Japanese, English, and French. Each language edition is available at:
Japanese
English and French

The 4th Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize is around the Corner! The special connection between Dr. Hideyo Noguchi and Africa is that he died in Africa, in present day Ghana, in May 1928 while investigating the cause of yellow fever. It is a great honour to Africa that Japan named the professional prize honouring Dr Hideyo Noguchi Africa prize! This prize is unique in that it has two Categories; one which honours Medical Research and the other that honours Medical Services. It is exciting that preparations are underway for the Fourth Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize that will be awarded in 2022. Africa needs to use the awarding of the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize to mobilize interest and support for promoting effective medical services in Africa that every individual in every household in every community can reach. This need is very clear during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It gives me the greatest honor and pleasure to endorse the legacy of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi through the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize. As the recipient of the 2nd award in the Medical Services category, I thank the Japanese government and people for understanding the important link of translating scientific research into medical services that can reach all people through Universal Health Coverage (UHC). In the years since I received my award I have focused on supporting large scale up efforts to tackle several diseases, and now mainly through building leadership skills in Africa, for the next generation of Global Health practitioners. The current COVID 19 epidemic will challenge all of us to finally control this disease and be better prepared for the next one. The Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize is an important way to draw attention to all the work that needs to happen to improve health in Africa and have a healthy and prosperous people.

I am delighted to learn that the nominations for the awards for the Fourth Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize have been launched. As a laureate of the previous Third Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Services, I want to encourage the nomination of as many well qualified candidates as possible for this highly prestigious Prize. There are many well qualified candidates who may not be aware of the deserving high quality of their contributions to health services in Africa and I call upon all of stake others to recognize them and submit the maximum number of nominations.
(Note: Dr. Omaswa has provided support for the exchange program between junior high schools in Fukushima Prefecture, Dr. Hideyo Noguchi's hometown, and in Uganda, Dr. Omaswa's home country.)

On December 18, 2020, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga received a courtesy call from Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Chair of the Advisory Panel of Experts on Improving the Administration of the "Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize," with the final report prepared by the Panel. Since July 2020, the Panel has met three times to discuss issues such as improvement of the method of inviting nominations for the prize, review of the selection process and criteria, and enhancement of publicity activities. Based on the proposals stated in the Panel's report, efforts will be made to establish a more effective and enhanced Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize.

Dr. Kurokawa, Chair of the Panel, delivering the final report to Prime Minister Suga
(on the right), on December 18, 2020, at the Prime Minister's Office
Source: Website of the Prime Minister’s Office

On November 6 and 7, 2020, the 7th Nikkei FT Communicable Diseases Conference was held, and amid the COVID-19 pandemic, stakeholders in industry, government, and academia shared their knowledge with one another and engaged in discussions that were highly suggestive. At this conference, Dr. Peter Piot, the Laureate of the Second Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize (Director and Professor, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), gave a keynote speech in which he pointed out that emerging infectious diseases are common challenges to all human beings and vaccination is indispensable in order to overcome COVID-19, called for international cooperation and continued implementation of basic infection control measures, and suggested the necessity to invest in conducting research and development and developing insurance systems in order to be prepared for future epidemics of infections.

“A Time of Pandemic Has Come”
(Nikkei, December 9, 2020, page 29)

At the WHO Workshop to Sensitize Young Scientists on the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize (held online on March 17, 2020),
Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, the Laureate of the third Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize (General Director, National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB)), gave a speech to young scientists. The summary of his speech is as follows:
I am proud to be awarded the 3rd HNAP in the category of medical research. If you ask me what is the secret to my success? There is no secret; but in my life, I had a source of inspiration, I had perseverance and scientific rigor in research and training.
Dr Hideyo Noguchi was born in 1876 in lnawashiro, Fukushima prefecture, Japan. At the age of l year, he suffered a severe burn injury on his left hand. Dr Watanabe decided to conduct the surgery on Noguchi’s hand. The encounter with this man, was a source of inspiration for Noguchi to enter the medical field. Likewise, in 1969, as a young doctor, I decided to embrace the scientific career, under the inspiration of my professor of Microbiology, Dr J. Vandepitte. Now that I have become Professor, I try to be a source of inspiration for a lot of doctors and laboratory technicians who dream of becoming like me, a well-known virologists.
Dr Noguchi has traveled extensively to Peru, Mexico and Brazil to control yellow fever outbreaks in order to elucidate the etiology. Sadly, he died in Ghana after being infected with yellow fever. Likewise, I have been involved in the control of several Ebola epidemics in my own country, the DRC, and in the Republic of Congo and Gabon. In 1995, during the Ebola disease outbreak in Kikwit, my team performed blood transfusions from individuals recovering from Ebola to patients infected with the Ebola virus. 7 out of 8 transfused patients survived. Unfortunately, in subsequent epidemics, we were unable to repeat this experience, as most of our international partners were reluctant to admit that antibodies in the blood of convalescents could be effective in neutralizing the Ebola virus. But from 1995 to 2006, I continued to believe that anti-Ebola antibodies could have neutralizing activities. In collaboration with Nancy Sullivan's team at the National Institute of Health, USA, we developed a monoclonal antibody from a survivor of the Ebola outbreak in Kikwit. Years have passed and epidemics have arrived, but it was in December 2020 that the United States Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) approved our mAb114 as a treatment for Ebola disease.
Scientific rigor is the essential element in the life of a researcher. It is what guides you in your search for truth and in the accumulation of irrefutable evidence. In my life as a researcher, I have always favored international partnerships to increase my scientific rigor through scientific meetings and the acquisition of new technologies.
I have been recognized for my research into controlling Ebola and other deadly viruses and for my efforts to train legions of disease fighters. Today, my wish is to perpetuate the scientific and social spirit of Hideyo Noguchi among young African scientists.

The Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize was featured in a double-page article in the March 2021 issue (N°3098) of Jeune Afrique, an African weekly journal (written in French). The Fourth Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize nominations are open from the end of March. Based on the report of the Advisory Panel of Experts of the "Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize" to the Prime Minister of Japan, the article was written to widely inform people in Africa of the purpose of this prize in order to enhance the publicity of and increase the interest in this prize in Africa.
Since the publication of its first issue in 1960, Jeune Afrique has covered a wide range of topics including the current status of Africa, latest news, and insightful reports. It is a representative and most widely read French-written quality journal in Africa.

The Fourth Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize nominations are open from the end of March. Based on the report of the Advisory Panel of Experts of the "Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize" to the Prime Minister of Japan, an outline of achievements of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi is provided in five languages, i.e., English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic, together with the Nomination Guidelines, as a helpful reference for submitting nominations from Africa. The reference is available at:
[Announcement] The fourth Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize nominations open