School of Health Sciences Faculty of Medicine University of the Ryukyus

DEPARTMENT OF GLOBAL HEALTH

about usSchool Health Program and Research
Introduction to Our Activities

Is there a gap between health education content and practice toward schistosomiasis prevention among schoolchildren?

Despite provision of preventive measures against schistosomiasis such as mass drug administration (MDA) long time, the prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni remains high in many areas, countries. We show one of the reason in this paper. It was seven years ago that I had the opportunity to work in Kenya and thought that this fact should be shown by evidence that children carry water from the lake every day to school.Thanks Dr. Rie for your effort to create out put of our research.
Please click below link, which is shown new our paper in Plos NTD
https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0007572

Japan Consortium for Global School Health Research

The Department of Global Health serves as secretariat for the Japan Consortium for Global School Health Research. The Consortium is Japan’s first think tank whose aim is to pursue research that contributes the extension and appropriate implementation of school health for school-age children and adolescent youth in developing countries. The worldwide strategy is to put back those results into policy management in each country as well as contribute to the improvement of health in communities. Flexible concepts and approaches need to be developed, which are not constrained by stereotypes, for developing nations, so it is hoped that participants will join from a broad range of fields, including not only health science studies, but education, epidemiology, health education, parasitology, human ecology, economics, policy studies and other fields as well. Also, in order to train young researchers, information is being exchanged among members in Japan and networks strengthened with researchers in other countries.

Countries targeted in Consortium activities：
Niger, Kenya, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc.

Link：http://www.tm.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/schoolhealth/schoolhealth.jp/index.html
 

3^rd Annual Training Course on School Health and Nutrition Program in Asia

 
 

4^th Annual Training Course on School Health and Nutrition Program in Asia

Research on School Health in Niger

Niger is the world’s poorest country and faces an extremely difficult situation economically and environmentally. The Department of Global Health has conducted joint research with the JICA Human Development Department and Niger Office on how to extend school health in a country where there are extreme issues in terms of infrastructure development and access. The Japan Consortium for Global School Health Research introduced a comprehensive school health self-assessment system, which has been extended throughout Asia, to West African Centre for International Parasite Control (WACIPAC is under the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research). The Niger Ministry of Education, in cooperation with JICA, prepared simplified and improved guidelines focusing on the environment and distributed them nationwide. It was found that neighborhood association support for schools clearly improved school health plans and budgeting. Together with the counterpart Niger Ministry of Education, consideration is continuing to be given jointly to what can be done in these difficult conditions to improve strategies for school health as well as evaluation and research on such 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?
 

JICA Grassroots Partner Program

JICA Grassroots Partner Program: Schoolchildren Support Project for Creating Healthy Communities

The “Schoolchildren Support Project for Creating Healthy Communities,” a JICA Grassroots Partner Program implemented by the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Nagasaki University, provides technical assistance through the Japan Consortium for Global School Health Research. The foundation of Kenya’s health policy is grassroots activities carried out by community residents (community health strategy), and school health is a major part of this effort. School health management systems are being introduced at 70 elementary schools in the Mbita District along the shores of Lake Victoria in Western Kenya. The aim is to develop and strengthen school health and improve the state of public health throughout the community by using school health activities as a foundation.

Link　JICA http://www.jica.go.jp/partner/kusanone/partner/ken_10.html
 GC-GSHR http://www.tm.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/schoolhealth/schoolhealth.jp/sub8.html