Office for Global Relations

The Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University is an educational institution of infectious diseases which has a wide range of professionals of many disciplines, including clinical medicine, epidemiology, and human ecology. Nagasaki University established an office for the Project for Strengthening EPI in Pacific Region, JICA Project, in September 2006, and set up a laboratory in the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi in March 2007.

The Research Project in Vietnam

Vietnam Research Station

A special research program of the Japanese Government for the establishment of a research center for emerging and reemerging infectious disease
Duration: 2005-2009

This project strove to continue basic research on measures against infectious diseases while also cultivating human resources and accumulating greater knowledge through research. A laboratory was established in the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology of Vietnam in March 2016 to conduct collaboration research with Nagasaki University.

Specifically, Nagasaki University studies the fundamental cause of emerging and re-emerging infectious disease through cooperation with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) and aims to discover new preventative measures.

Project Goal

• Promote advanced research on clinical intervention
• Through symptom surveillance and other methods, we will analyze genetic information available from clinical epidemiology samples, accumulate data, and disclose information of local emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.

Collaborative Research in Hanoi

1. NIHE-NU Friendship Laboratory: Located within the NIHE, three research professors, two research assistant professors, and one coordinator are stationed there.
2. Cooperation with Bach Mai Hospital and other clinics/local hospitals
3. Using the infectious disease network in Vietnam

The Research Project in Fiji: Project for Strengthening EPI in Pacific Region

JICA Technical Cooperation Project

Duration: 2005-2009
Target Region: 13 Pacific regions
Project base: Suva, Fiji

Nagasaki University started “The Research Project in Fiji: Project for Strengthening EPI in Pacific Region” with the purpose of strengthening EPI (Expanded Program on Immunization), intended for 13 Pacific regions as a five-year JICA project.

This project was intended for Fiji, the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, the Republic of Palau, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Project Goal

Conducting a technical transfer of the following three techniques, so that Pacific countries will be able to manage EPI on their own.

• Developing logistics for vaccines
• Improving maintenance and management of cold chain technology
• Improving techniques and technology regarding the safe disposal of clinical waste

The Research Project in Kenya

ケニア感染症研究拠点形成

「新興・再新興感染症研究ネットワークの構築」
A special grant from the MEXT
Duration: 2005-2009
Hub office: KEMRI

This project was started in 2005 as a joint project with JICA, aiming to 新興・再新興感染症研究ネットワークの構築.

Project Vision

• Promoting international collaborative projects, infectious disease research, and human resource development.

Project Goal

• Epidemiological and ecological research on schistosome and malaria
• Prospective study of tropical diseases based on the Demographic Surveillance System
• Education for young researchers focusing on practical activities

The research project in Malawi: Developing surveillance tools to monitor vectors and viruses for reemerging infectious disease

This project is called Dispatch of Science and Technology Researchers, also known as the JICA-JSPS Project. The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) selects Japanese researchers based on the demands of developing countries, MEXT recommends the researchers to JICA, and JICA dispatches them to developing countries as experts.

Their activities consisted of collecting mosquitoes and detecting mosquito-born viruses. Through this field and laboratory work, the experts taught the techniques and knowledge to the local staff and students. It is the hope of the experts that they will be able to continue these research activities on their own.