School of Health Sciences Faculty of Medicine University of the Ryukyus

DEPARTMENT OF GLOBAL HEALTH

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Introduction to Our Activities

Building a Broad Surveillance Network and Infectious Disease Control Infrastructure…

…using Centralized Diagnostic Technology for Multiple Infectious Diseases in Kenya

Project for Constructing Broad Surveillance Network and Infectious Disease Control Infrastructure using Centralized Diagnostic Technology for Multiple Infectious Diseases in Kenya

 As part of a Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) project, under which Professor Kobayashi has been conducting joint research with visiting professors at the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Nagasaki University, for developing an African hub for the development of centralized and simultaneous diagnostic technology mainly targeting the poorest segment of the population and constructing an integrated infectious disease control infrastructure and broad surveillance network for various infectious diseases that utilizes this technology, Professor Kobayashi has been responsible for moving forward the application of such technology to school health. In African countries, the spread of neglected tropical diseases (NTD) is a serious public health issue. As part of this, many insects infect school-age children through soil-borne infestations and schistosomiasis, which significantly affect children’s ability to attend school and concentrate on their studies. Even though the schistosomiasis infection route around the target area of Lake Victoria has been identified as contact with lakeside water and health education has been carried out for many years to encourage people to avoid such contact, such efforts have not had much effect. This research has considered shifting to education that applies centralized and simultaneous diagnostic technology for multiple infectious diseases to school health screening and encourages people to undergo appropriate treatment rather than implementing the impractical health lesson for school-age children that “they should avoid contact with lakeside water.”


Women washing clothes and bathing alongside Lake Victoria, a location known for schistosomiasis infections


Students are instructed that the water to be used at school is to be drawn from Lake Victoria


Ms. Henzan (4^th year undergraduate) conducting a questionnaire survey of teachers asking “Why students are absent from school?