My continuing efforts toward the eradication of the vaccine-preventable diseases from Japan

摘要

When compared to the Western countries, unfortunately, the progress toward the eradication of vaccine-preventable diseases in Japan has been relatively slow and hampered by some problems inherent to Japan. Concerning this, I have been working on the vaccine-preventable diseases, that is, measles, influenza, Haemophilus influenzae, and Streptcoccus pneumoniae infections. My first work was to produce monoclonal antibodies against measles virus proteins, and by using these antibodies, I established theimmunofluorescent measles virus detection system in tissue samples. I constructed the ‘Hokkaido measles-zero strategy’ to eliminate measles from Hokkaido prefecture, the northernmost island of Japan, within 5 years since 2001 with very kind efforts ofpediatricians in Hokkaido and those who are engaged in political activities. Coworkers and I established the disease entity of influenza-associated encephalopathy. And finally, I worked as a member of some groups that accumulated the basic data on the occurrence of bacterial meningitis in Japan and urged the government to introduce the H. influenzae type b conjugate vaccine and the pediatric 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in Japan. I would like to express many thanks to all of my colleagues fortheir contributions to these achievements.