Hideyo Noguchi

  Hideyo Noguchi (野口 英世, Noguchi Hideyo^?); 9 November, 1876 - 21 May, 1928) was a prominent Japanese bacteriologist who discovered the agent of syphilis in 1911.

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Early life

Noguchi Hideyo was born in Inawashiro, Fukushima prefecture in 1876 under the name Seisaku Noguchi (野口清作, Noguchi Seisaku^?). When he was one and a half years old he fell down into a fireplace and suffered a burn injury on his left hand. In 1883 he entered Mitsuwa elementary school. Thanks to the generous contribution from his teacher Kobayashi and his friends, he was able to receive surgery on his badly burned left hand. He recovered about 70% of mobility and functionality of his left hand through the operation. He made the decision to become a doctor and help those in need. He then apprenticed himself to Dr. Kanae Watanabe (渡部鼎, Watanabe Kanae^?), the same doctor who had performed surgery on his hand. He passed the examinations to practice medicine when he was twenty years old in 1897. He showed signs of prodigy and was supported in his studies by Dr. Morinosuke Chiwaki. In 1898, he changed his name to Hideyo Noguchi when he read fictional novel which was about doctor who had the same name as him. Doctor in the novel like Noguchi was intellgient but became lazy and ruined his life. Shocked, Noguci changed his name Seisaku into Hideyo.

Overseas activities

  In 1900 Noguchi moved to United States, where he got a job as a research assistant. At this time his work concerned poisonous snakes. In part his move was motivated by difficulties in obtaining a medical position in Japan, as prospective employers were concerned about the impact the hand deformity would have on potential patients. He obtained a position at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1904. While working at the Rockefeller Institute in 1913, he demonstrated the presence of Treponema pallidum (syphilitic spirochete) in the brain of a progressive paralysis patient, proving that the spirochete was the cause of the disease. Dr. Noguchi's name is remembered in the binomial attached to another spirochete, Leptospira noguchii.^[1]

In 1918, Noguchi traveled extensively in Central America and South America to do research for a vaccine for yellow fever, and to research Oroya fever, poliomyelitis and trachoma. While in Ecuador, he received a commission as a colonel in the Ecuador Army.

In 1928, Noguchi traveled to Africa to confirm his findings. ^[2] According to the H2G2 project on BBC [1], he was testing the hypothesis that yellow fever was caused by spirochaete bacteria instead of a virus. While working in Accra, Gold Coast he was struck down by the yellow fever virus, his last words being "I don't understand."

Dr. Noguchi's portrait has been printed on Japanese 1000 yen bill since 2004. In addition, the house where he was born and brought up is preserved and is part of a museum to his life and its achievements.

Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize

The Japanese Government has established the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize in July 2006 to award individuals with outstanding achievements in the field of medical research and medical services.^[3] The first award ceremony is planned to coincide with the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in May 2008.^[4]

References

• Flexner, Simon. Hideyo Noguchi: A biographical sketch. American Association for the Advancement of Science (1929). ASIN: B00089QL7Y
• Kita, Atsushi. Dr. Noguchi's Journey: A Life of Medical Search and Discovery. Oxford University Press, USA (July 15, 2005). ISBN 4-7700-2355-3