Protecting Lives from Infectious Diseases and Preparing for the Future: The Role of the JICA Global Healthcare Initiative
It has been two and a half years since new coronavirus infections began to threaten our health and way of life. In order to control the spread of infectious diseases beyond national borders and to prepare for a new pandemic, it is essential to take measures not only within one’s own country but also in developing countries, especially those with weak healthcare systems. Everyone in the world should be able to prevent infectious diseases, receive diagnosis and treatment when they do occur, and be prepared to cope with another pandemic in the future. With this goal in mind, JICA has been working on the “JICA Global Healthcare Initiative” since July 2020. Now, we will look back on the past efforts and consider how we can cooperate in the future.
Protecting People’s Lives and Health through the Three Pillars of “Treatment,” “Prevention,” and “Warning” In the first half of 2020, a pandemic of a new type of coronavirus infection began to spread around the world. The world was struck with great anxiety because there was no vaccine, no treatment, and no idea of what kind of virus it was. In particular, there were fears of an explosive spread of infection in developing countries with weak healthcare systems.
Against this backdrop, JICA was quick to initiate emergency assistance in developing countries to strengthen infection prevention and testing systems, and to establish hospitals capable of receiving seriously ill patients. At the same time, JICA launched the JICA Global Healthcare Initiative with the aim of protecting people’s lives and health and building healthcare systems that are more resistant to infectious diseases.
Efforts under this initiative are based on three pillars: “treatment” to strengthen the treatment and diagnosis system by upgrading hospitals and training medical personnel; “vigilance” to establish an inspection and research system for infectious diseases; and “prevention” to promote hand washing, improve sanitary environments, and spread vaccines.
As the fight against new coronavirus infections dragged on, we also took steps to meet the needs of individual countries: we built hospitals to improve medical services for approximately 200 million people in 22 countries, and provided 64 countries with the equipment and materials needed to fight infectious diseases and strengthen prevention systems.
While the number of critically ill patients requiring intensive care was increasing, the treatment system in developing countries was not keeping pace due to a lack of intensive care expertise and technology, as well as facilities and equipment for isolation beds. To address this issue, we connected local doctors and nurses with intensive care specialists in Japan via a communication system, and provided training, advice, and guidance on intensive care to a total of more than 2,500 medical personnel in 11 countries remotely.
Effective New Coronavirus Control Effective New Coronavirus Control Progressed Thanks to Long-standing Cooperation One of the countries that was able to take prompt and sustained action against new coronavirus infection thanks to Japan’s long-standing cooperation in the healthcare sector and its efforts under this initiative is Ghana in Africa.
When the epidemic began (March-June 2020), the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (Noguchi Lab), established in 1979 with the cooperation of Japan, was responsible for 80% of PCR testing in Ghana. In 2018, the institute also added the Center for Advanced Infectious Disease Research to its facilities. The support for research on infectious diseases and the development of medical personnel enabled the institute to immediately begin work on the testing system and other measures during the chaotic period immediately following the outbreak of new coronavirus infections.
We have heard from local medical professionals that if it weren’t for the Center for Advanced Infectious Disease Research, we don’t know what would have happened in Ghana in response to the new type of coronavirus infection,” said Dr. M. M. Kwok, Director of the Center for Advanced Infectious Disease Research. The fact that we have always been prepared for health crises, such as life-threatening infectious disease outbreaks, helped us to respond to this emergency.
Ms. Maki Ozawa (now in JICA’s Human Development Division), formerly with the JICA Ghana Office, who at the time struggled with local officials on the front lines of the new corona outbreak, recalls.
Noguchi Lab has also been working to improve the PCR testing system in Ghana, and now has more than 20 facilities that can perform the tests. Noguchi Lab also provides support to neighboring countries in West Africa, including training of laboratory technicians, and the know-how developed at Noguchi Lab has led to the creation of a regional preparedness system for health crises.
Japan ranks second in the world in terms of the amount of support for developing countries in the fight against new strains of coronavirus (2020-2021). JICA has been supporting measures taken by developing countries under the three pillars of the JICA Global Health Initiative: treatment, warning, and prevention.
“JICA has provided a wide range of support, from emergency assistance such as the provision of necessary equipment and materials immediately after the outbreak of new coronavirus infection, to remote support for advanced medical services, training of medical personnel, and awareness-raising activities to prevent infectious diseases in communities, such as hand-washing promotion, during the prolonged epidemic, based on its knowledge and experience. JICA’s Global Healthcare Initiative has played a highly significant role in providing tailor-made assistance to meet the needs of each country, based on detailed local information.
So says Tomohiko Sugishita, a visiting professor at Tokyo Women’s Medical University, who has served as a JICA international cooperation specialist and advisor on global health in more than 30 countries. For many years, he has been involved in cooperating with health care systems in developing countries, providing technical support for JICA’s cooperation projects in the health care field, and disseminating information both domestically and internationally.
© Source JICA
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