Vol.4. "Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research"
- ViVID
- May 10, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 30, 2020
In this 4th of a series of publications, “Stay Home Stay with ViVID”, we will present Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) and the recent grand opening of Noguchi Advanced Research Laboratories (NARL).
The typical Japanese’ idea of Ghana often lies around “Chocolate”, ”Nyaho Tamakloe” and ”Dr.Hideyo Noguchi”. (Yes, Dr.Nyaho Tamakloe was very famous on a Japanese TV show at one time). In Japan, almost everyone knows Dr.Noguchi was a distinguished bacteriologist who researched into yellow fever in Ghana and died from the disease in the country in 1928. NMIMR was built by the Government of Japan and donated to the Government and people of Ghana in honour of Dr.Noguchi in 1979 [1]. NMIMR has played a role as a semi-autonomous institute of the University of Ghana and it is the leading biomedical research facility in Ghana. In Ghana, more than 70% of major illness are infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDs [2]. Improvement in disease control measures are urgently needed to stabilize the health systems of the society. Since its establishment, NMIMR has played a leading role in the medical field in West Africa and has contributed internationally to infectious disease control issues with assistance from Japan’s grant and technical cooperation. The institute has over the years served as a major player in providing state-of-the-art detection and diagnosis of dangerous pathogens that have caused major epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Yellow fever and Ebola Virus Disease as well as the Pandemic Flu[5].
In March, 2019, Noguchi Advanced Research Laboratories (NARL) which was financed via a USD 20 million Japanese sponsorship scheme was inaugurated to restore the dilapidating facilities and augment the work space of NMIMR. NARL is now offering a joint training programme for laboratory technicians across the West African sub-region [3]. In the efforts to combat the current novel virus outbreak, the institute has tremendously scaled up its capacity in testing samples for COVID-19, conducting between 2,000 – 3,000 tests daily [4]. Dr.Noguchi’s dream has been taken over by people the of Japan and Ghana for more than 100 years.
Besides NMIMR and NARL, the Noguchi Hideyo Memorial Museum located within the walls of KBTH (Korle-bu Technical Hospital) serves as a repository of information, where we can continue to learn about the footsteps of the bacteriologist. In the next publication, we will present some of our findings and views from the Noguchi Hideyo Memorial Museum.
ViVID is urgently working on a new project “Fight COVID-19 with ViVID” as a means to tackle this emergency. (We will be soon launching a crowdfunding too!)
*4 https://www.ug.edu.gh/news/noguchi-memorial-institute-medical-research-receives-donation-zoomlion-ghana-limited-support
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