Hideyo Noguchi

Hideyo Noguchi
野口 英世
Born	(1876-11-09)November 9, 1876 Inawashiro, Fukushima, Japan
Died	May 21, 1928(1928-05-21) (aged 51) Accra, Gold Coast
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City, US
Known for	syphilis Treponema pallidum
Scientific career
Fields	bacteriology
Japanese name
Kanji	野口 英世
Hiragana	のぐち ひでよ
Transcriptions Romanization Noguchi Hideyo

Hideyo Noguchi (野口 英世, Noguchi Hideyo, November 9, 1876 – May 21, 1928), also known as Seisaku Noguchi (野口 清作, Noguchi Seisaku), was a prominent Japanese bacteriologist who in 1911 discovered the correlation between the agent of syphilis as the cause of progressive paralytic disease. Noguchi was the first person in the United States to identify the cause of syphilis in 1906. In addition, he produced numerous diagnostic tests for syphilis. He made major contributions to understanding snake venom and immunology. Noguchi was one of the first Japanese scientists to gain international acclaim and recognition for his work.

Early life

Noguchi Hideyo, whose childhood name was Seisaku Noguchi, was born to a family of farmers for generations in Inawashiro, Fukushima prefecture in 1876. When he was one and a half years old, he fell into a fireplace and suffered a burn injury on his left hand. There was no doctor in the small village, but one of the men examined the boy. "The fingers of the left hand are mostly gone," he said, "and the left arm, the left foot, and the right hand are burned; I don't know how badly."

In 1883, Noguchi entered Mitsuwa elementary school. Thanks to generous contributions from his teacher Kobayashi and his friends, he was able to receive surgery on his badly burned hand. He recovered about 70% mobility and functionality in his left hand through the operation.

Noguchi decided to become a doctor to help those in need. He apprenticed himself to Dr. Kanae Watanabe (渡部 鼎, Watanabe Kanae), the same doctor who had performed the surgery. He entered Saisei Gakusha, which later became Nippon Medical School. He passed the examinations to practice medicine when he was twenty years old in 1897.

In 1898, he changed his first name to Hideyo after reading a novel by Japanese author Tsubouchi Shōyō about a college student whose character had the same name as him. The character in the story, Seisaku, was an intelligent medical student like Noguchi but became lazy and ruined his life.

Hideyo Noguchi and his mother Shika

In 1899, he met Simon Flexner during a brief internship at the Kitasato Institute in Tokyo. Noguchi expressed his desire to work with him, and Simon's polite encouragement was taken.

Benefactors and Patrons

Young Hideyo Noguchi

Noguchi showed signs of great talent. He had three benefactors supporting him, Sakae Kobayashi, his elementary school teacher and father figure, Kanae Watanabe, the doctor who performed surgery on his hand, and his main benefactor, Morinosuke Chiwaki, the founder of the Tokyo Dental College, who partially funded his travel to America.

Early Career

Traveling to the United States

In 1900, Noguchi travelled on the America Maru to the United States. In part, his move was motivated by difficulties in obtaining a medical position in Japan, as its emphasis on expensive schooling and seniority put limits on his success. In addition to that, his employers were concerned his hand deformity would discourage potential patients. He felt moving to the United States, where talent counted for everything, he would be able to find more success.

Research on Snake Venom

Noguchi went to Philadelphia and obtained a job as a research assistant with Dr. Simon Flexner at the University of Pennsylvania in 1901. Flexner asked Noguchi, "Have you ever studied snake venom?" Noguchi, not having much experience but determination, said, "Yes, sir, I do know a little about it. I'd like the chance to learn more." Noguchi's experience with snake venom was witnessing senior researchers at the Kitasato Institute working with habu, a native Japanese pit piper.

On January 4, 1901, Noguchi began his research assistant job, earning about eight dollars a month. He worked in a small lab at the University of Philadelphia. Noguchi became fascinated with the concept of immunity. Flexner had to leave on occasion and he put him under the guidance of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell. During his work, Noguchi complained about the feeding snakes live rabbits in their cages. He felt this practice cruel, but others said he was being oversensitive and too sentimental.

In spite of his lack of knowledge, Flexner returned after three months to see Noguchi had written a 250 page paper on snake venom. Dr. Mitchell praised Noguchi's work. The joint research paper appeared in the University of Pennsylvania's medical journal, becoming Noguchi's first official research paper.

Both Dr. Mitchell and Noguchi presented their scientific findings to the National Academy of Science in Philadelphia. Dr. Mitchell spoke during their presentation and Noguchi handled the specimens and used the equipment in the demonstration.

Dr. Mitchell said after their research concluded...

"It is thanks to the great efforts of this young man that I have been able to bring my thirty years of research to their final conclusion."

Although, Mitchell was concerned about his acceptance into larger Western society. German researcher Paul Ehrlich wrote to Noguchi to congratulate him. On July 9, 1907, the University of Pennsylvania awarded Hideyo Noguchi an honorary degree. Dr. Mitchell recommended him for the Carnegie Fellowship and Noguchi became an official researcher, receiving funding and grants from the Carnegie Institute and National Academy of Science.

French scientist Albert Calmette was the first to produce an antitoxin for venomous snake bites in 1895. Dr. Mitchell had made attempts to produce a serum for rattlesnakes, but was unsuccessful and encouraged Noguchi to attempt this. During which, Noguchi was invited to research to the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen. He brought a hundred grams of dried rattlesnake venom. He continued his research on serology and wrote several papers with fellow bacteriologist, Thorvald Madsen, whose friendship continued late into life. Noguchi and Madsen produced the first successful serum against North American rattlesnakes in 1903. His research was the precursor to the development of the first antivenom for North American rattlesnakes.

In 1909, Noguchi released a lavishly produced monograph on snake venom, Snake Venoms: An Investigation of Venomous Snakes with Special Reference to the Phenomena of Their Venoms. The publication contained drawings from Noguchi and several photographs of specimens.

In the preface, it stated,

“No single work in the English language exists at this time which treats of the facts of zoological, anatomical, physiological, and pathological features of venomous snakes, with particular reference to the properties of their venoms."

Noguchi continued to promote the use of antivenoms in 1909. His contributions to modern immunology and toxicology are undoubtable and have left a long lasting impact.

Career at Rockefeller Institute

The microscope Hideyo Noguchi used to identify syphilis at the Rockefeller Institute.

In 1904, Noguchi started work at the Rockefeller Institute after his former boss Simon Flexner approached him. In this period, a fellow research assistant in Flexner's lab was Frenchman Alexis Carrel, who would go on to win a Nobel Prize in 1912. Noguchi would be nominated numerous times for a Nobel Prize but never received one.

Discoveries involving Syphilis

Treponema pallidum was first identified by Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann in 1905 as the causative agent of syphilis. In 1906, Noguchi was the first American confirmation of Schaudinn and Hoffman's experiment sixty days after the discovery. In 1909, Noguchi pioneered a new method for testing syphilis using sample fluid from the spinal column, known as the Butyric Acid Test, and widely used by the medical establishment.

In 1910, Noguchi published his manuscript, Serum Diagnosis of Syphilis, which received international acclaim and became one of his most popular publications. In October 1910 and March 1911, he isolated Treponema pallidum. Flexner told him to focus his efforts on obtaining a pure culture of the spirochete, but his results were unreproducible.

In 1913, Noguchi demonstrated a major discovery, the presence of Treponema pallidum in the brain of a progressive paralysis patient, proving that the spirochete was the cause of the neurosyphilis and the homogeneity between the mental and physical part of the disease.

Hideyo Noguchi at work at his microscope

When interviewed about this moment, he said,

"All you need is enough test tubes, sufficient money, dedication, and hard work. . . and one more thing, you have got to be able to put up with endless failure."

Dr. Noguchi's name is remembered in the binomial attached to another spirochete, Leptospira noguchii. One accomplishment that has been disputed was his pure culture of Treponema pallidum.

When compared to a genius, he said, "there was no such thing as genius. There was only the willingness to work three, four, even five times harder than the next man".

Research Methods

Noguchi was prolific in his results. His single year record for numbers of published papers was an unheard of nineteen submitted to journals. Flexner described his work as "superhuman".

Although, Noguchi's perfectionism and stubborness made it difficult for him to accept help. He washed his own test tubes and grounded his mixtures even though lab assistant could have done it. Noguchi said, "I can't allow someone who doesn't know exactly what I'm doing here to interfere."

In addition, Noguchi was known for his messy work station as he left cigarette butts and used test tubes all over, but he told his advisors to look at the results, not his cigarettes.

Personal life

Marriage and Relationships

Ms. Noguchi (Mary Loretta Dardis)

Noguchi secretly married Mary Loretta Dardis on April 10, 1912. Both were the same age and came from a background of poverty. Her family were Irish immigrants. Mary, nicknamed Maize, called her husband, Hide. His marriage was kept secret from his family, friends, and boss, Simon Flexner. Flexner opposed his marriage to an American. Noguchi worried that his marriage would jeopardize his promotion at the Rockefeller Institute because Mary would have to be added to his pension. His marriage was not known to most until his death.

Noguchi and his wife found an apartment in 381 Central Park West. Often, Mary would read to him in the kitchen as he worked at his microscope. Noguchi was said to have loved her voice. Their neighbor was Ichiro Hori, a Japanese painter and photographer. Noguchi and him became friends and would have dinner, smoke cigars, and play shogi.

Noguchi met Hajime Hoshi who had studied at Columbia University. Both were from the Fukushima, but Hoshi returned to Japan and started a successful pharmaceutical business in Tokyo. His friendship with Noguchi continued . He used Noguchi as an advisor for his pharmaceutical company, as Noguchi had begun receiving international recognition, which he offered to compensate him for, but Noguchi said to give it to his family in Fukushima.

Return to Japan

Noguchi with medals

He would write often to his mentor, Kobayashi, who granted Noguchi permission to call him "father", which Noguchi began addressing him in letters. He also was encouraging Noguchi to return and get a degree from a Japanese university and establish his future career in Japan.

In a letter from his mother Shika, who was notably illiterate, but learned to write, “Please come home soon, please come home soon, please come home soon, please come home soon.” His mother worked as a midwife in Japan, but he promised to send her about ten dollars every month to his family.

After his mother's health worsened, he sailed to Japan on September 5, 1915, to visit her and while he was in Japan accept the Imperial Prize. He was flocked with reporters and crowds on the dock. He saw his mentors Chiwaki and Kobayashi at the Imperial Hotel and presented them with golden watches as gifts. When he arrived to see his mother, he showed her a photograph of his wife who approved of her and soon both were laughing. Noguchi spent ten whole days with his mother, but he had to return to the United States, and that was his last trip in Japan. In November 1918. his mother Shika died.

Hideyo Noguchi's Shandaken house on Old Route 42

Hideyo Noguchi and his friends on the porch of his Shandaken home

Illness and Recovery in the Catskills

In 1917, Noguchi's health had declined. He had suffered from typhoid fever worsened by the fact he had eaten four dozen oysters and slept very little. Mary called an ambulance since he refused to go to the hospital, but eventually, he was brought to Mount Sinai . Hoshi gave him money for his treatment. His fever was severe and those around him feared the worst for his health.

While recovering, Noguchi and his wife took a four-hour train ride to the Glenbrook Hotel in Shandaken located in the Catskills Mountains. The small hamlet with less than a hundred people reminded him of his hometown of Inawashiro and had a local lake that was similar to the one in his village.

Noguchi decided to purchase approximately two hectares and build a house in Shandaken, becoming one of the largest landowners in the hamlet. The construction was completed around June 15, 1918. Noguchi built his home alongside the Esopus river where he would fish and spend most of his summers in 1918, 1922, and 1925 to 1927.

Hideyo Noguchi using color photography technique autochrome lumière

In 1925, his wife, Mary, three brothers came to visit. In addition, his friend, Ichiro Hori, and some Japanese students had spent time visiting in Shandaken.

Hobbies

Noguchi was gifted oil paints from Hori and he started painting in Shandaken. He became an avid painter. His paintings hang in the Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Museum.

Noguchi was an amateur photographer, and he might have been one of the first color photographs of a Japanese person. He achieved this through using autochrome lumière, an early color photograph technique. He stated this in a letter, dated August 8, 1914, to his childhood mentor, Sakae Kobayashi. It was said that there is no scientific researcher who likes photography more than Noguchi.

Luetin Experiment and the Antivivisectionists

In 1911 and 1912 at the Rockefeller Institute in New York City, Noguchi was working on a syphilis skin test, which could provide a useful diagnostic procedure to complement the Wassermann test in the detection of syphilis.

Professor William Henry Welch, Board of Scientific Directors at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, urged Noguchi to conduct human trials. The subjects were gathered from clinics and hospitals across New York City. In the experiment, the doctors given the tests injected an inactive product of syphilis, called luetin, under the skin on the upper arm of the patient.

Skin reactions were studied, as they varied among healthy subjects and syphilis patients, based on the disease's stage and its treatment. The lutein test gave a positive reaction almost 100 percent for congenital and late syphilis. Of the 571 subjects, 315 had syphilis. The remaining subjects were controls; some of which were orphans between the ages of 2 and 18 years. Most were hospital patients being treated for diseases, such as malaria, leprosy, tuberculosis, and pneumonia, and the subjects did not realize they were being experimented on and could not give consent.

Reactions to the Luetin Experiment

Critics at the time, mainly from the anti-vivisectionist movement, noted that the Rockefeller Institute violated the rights of vulnerable orphans and hospital patients. There was concern among anti-vivisectionists that the test subjects had contracted syphilis from the experiments, but were proven to be false.

In Dr. Noguchi's defense, Noguchi had performed tests on animals to ensure the safety of the lutein test. Rockefeller Institute business manager Jerome D. Greene wrote a letter to the Anti-Vivisection Society, which had pointed out that Noguchi had tested it on himself and his fellow researchers before administering it.

In a letter to District Attorney Charles S. Whitman, Greene said

"What public institution would not welcome a harmless and painless test which would enable it to decide in the case of every person admitted whether that person was afflicted with a venereal disease or not?"

Much of the information came from sensationalized newspapers, which did not consult medical professionals. Greene mentioned the steps taken to ensure the sterility. His explanation was considered a demonstration of the care that doctors were taking in research. In addition, Noguchi might have received more criticism due to his race with racist metaphors such as yellow peril being perpetuated. One of these newspaper described him as "the Oriental admirer of the fruits of Western civilization."

In May 1912, the New York Society for the Prevention for Cruelty to Children asked the New York district attorney to press charges against Noguchi, but he declined. Although, none of subjects were infected with syphilis, the Rockefeller Institute tested on patients without consent.

Even though none of the subjects were injured in the experiment, Hideyo Noguchi had committed a wrong, it was 'a wrong without injury'.Albert Leffingwell, a physician, social reformer, and advocate for vivisectionist restrictions, said in response to Jerome D. Greene.

"If insurance could have been given that the luetin test implied no risk of any kind, might not the Rockefeller Institute have secured any number of volunteers by the offer of a gratuity of twenty or thirty dollars as a compensation for any discomfort that might be endured?"

Consensus on Informed Consent

At the time of the Noguchi's experiment, consent in medical science was by no means customary. For instance, some of the fathers of microbiology, Robert Koch, operated medical concentration camps in Africa in 1906 to 1907 to find a cure for sleeping sickness, and ended up blinding some of his patients, and Louis Pasteur experimented on nine-year-old Joseph Meister without a medical license even though it was a success and was suspected to have lied about conducting animal trials.

The United States did not develop sufficient consensus about unethical human experimentation for laws to be passed until the late 20th century, which brought about informed consent and the rights of patients.

Later Career

After his return to Japan, Noguchi was inspired to tackle Weil's disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, similar to Tsutsugamushi, which was first isolated and found in Japan, and deaths were common among rice planters, farmers, and miners. In 1923, Noguchi was credited with producing the first effective antiserum against Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. He once said, "Whether I succeed or not is another matter, but the problem is worth trying."

Later, Noguchi showed discontent in his career, noted by his Japanese assistant Seinai Akatsu at the Rockefeller Institute, a cousin of Hajime Hoshi. Noguchi began losing his temper and scolding his assistant. Out of the laboratory, Akatsu said he was a different and more open person. He would even invite him to restaurants and speak Japanese with him—something he never did at the Rockefeller Institute.

In a letter to Flexner, he wrote,

"Somehow I cannot manage to find enough time to sit quietly and think over things calmly and reflect upon many things and phases in life. I seem to be chasing something all the time, perhaps an acquired habit or rather the lack of poise".

Nonetheless, he did not seem satisfied as he wanted to work on something more of a threat. He became more reckless with his behavior. Noguchi accidentally swallowed some bacterial solution from sucking in a pipette infected with jaundice. He washed his mouth out with alcohol but he was doubtful he got rid of the millions of germs.

Yellow Fever Work

Hideyo Noguchi dissecting a crocodile along the Rio Grande

Noguchi decided to focus his attention on yellow fever, which some of his colleagues died researching. In 1918, Noguchi traveled throughout Central America and South America working with the International Health Board to conduct research to develop a vaccine for yellow fever, and to research Oroya fever, poliomyelitis and trachoma.

Noguchi was a bacteriologist and believed that yellow fever was caused by bacteria instead of a virus, which would later be proven wrong. During his career, viruses were not well known and studied, having been discovered by two scientists in 1892. He worked for much of the next ten years attempting to prove this. Noguchi thought he had even developed a vaccine against "yellow fever". His work was criticized as taking an inaccurate approach for yellow fever that was contradictory to contemporary research. Later it would be understood he had confused yellow fever with leptospirosis, his vaccine was successfully used to treat the latter disease.

Following the death of British pathologist Adrian Stokes of yellow fever in September 1927, it became increasingly evident that yellow fever was caused by a virus, not by the bacillus Leptospira icteroides, as Noguchi believed.

Trip to Lagos and Accra

Hideyo Noguchi in Accra

Feeling his reputation was at stake, Noguchi hastened to Lagos to carry out additional research. However, he found the working conditions in Lagos did not suit him. At the invitation of Dr. William Alexander Young, the young director of the British Medical Research Institute, Accra, Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana), he moved to Accra and made this his base in 1927.

However, Noguchi proved a very difficult guest and by May 1928 Young regretted his invitation. Noguchi was secretive and volatile, working almost entirely at night to avoid contact with fellow researchers. Possibly his erratic and irresponsible behavior was caused by the untreated syphilis with which he was diagnosed in 1913, and which may have progressed to neurosyphilis. The diaries of Oskar Klotz, another researcher with the Rockefeller Foundation, describe Noguchi's temper and behavior as erratic and bordering on the paranoid. His methods were haphazard.

Disinfecting Hideyo Noguchi's laboratory in Accra after his death from Yellow Fever

According to Klotz, Noguchi inoculated huge numbers of monkeys with yellow fever, but failed to keep proper records. Noguchi might have believed himself immune to yellow fever, having been inoculated with a vaccine of his own development. His mental state deteriorated as he suffered from neurosyphilis, prone to amnesia and personality changes.

Death

Despite repeated promises to Young, Noguchi failed to keep infected mosquitoes in their secure containers. In May 1928, having failed to find evidence for his theories, Noguchi was set to return to New York after spending six months in Africa, but was fallen ill in Lagos. Noguchi boarded a ship to sail home but on May 12th was put ashore at Accra and taken to a hospital. He was diagnosed with yellow fever and after for some time, he died on 21 May.

In a letter home, Young states, "He died suddenly noon Monday. I saw him Sunday afternoon – he smiled – and amongst other things, said, “Are you sure you are quite well?" "Quite." I said, and then he said "I don’t understand."

Seven days later, despite exhaustive sterilisation of the site and most particularly of Noguchi's laboratory, Young himself died of yellow fever.

Legacy

Statue of Hideyo Noguchi in Ueno Park

Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Museum

Noguchi was influential during his lifetime. Although, some of his research, including having discovered the causes of polio, rabies, trachoma, and yellow fever, were not able to be reproduced. His finding that Noguchia granulosis causes trachoma was questioned within a year of his death, and overturned shortly thereafter. Alongside his identification of the rabies pathogen because the medium he invented to cultivate bacteria was seriously prone to contamination.

After Noguchi's death in 1928, it would not be until the electron microscope was developed in 1931, which could clearly identify and prove yellow fever was a virus, even though skeptics had started to understand it was earlier. Another Rockefeller Institute researcher said that Noguchi "knew nothing about the pathology of yellow fever" and criticized him for being unwilling to issue retractions for his claims. Critics describe it as flaws inside the Rockefeller Institute's system of peer review.

Noguchi's most famous contribution is his identification of the causative agent of syphilis (the bacteria Treponema pallidum) in the brain tissues of patients with partial paralysis due to meningoencephalitis. Other lasting contributions include the use of snake venom in serums, his development for an antiserum for Rocky Mountain spotted fever, his diagnostics tests, and the identification of the leishmaniasis pathogen and of Carrion's disease with Oroya fever. He published over 200 papers on various infectious diseases, one of the most prolific scientists, and gave lecture tours throughout Europe.

In 1921, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society. Although, his claim to have grown a culture of syphilis though is considered irreproducible.

In the 21st century, the Nobel Foundation archives were opened for public inspection and research. Noguchi was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: in 1913–1915, 1920, 1921 and 1924–1927. Some of Noguchi's prize nominations and work on a pure culture of syphilis and yellow fever received scrutiny.

Selected works

• 1904: The Action of Snake Venom Upon Cold-blooded Animals.

Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution. [OCLC 2377892]

• 1909: Snake Venoms: An Investigation of Venomous Snakes with Special Reference to the Phenomena of Their Venoms.

Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution. [OCLC 14796920]

• 1911: Serum Diagnosis of Syphilis and the Butyric Acid Test for Syphilis.

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. [OCLC 3201239]

• 1923: Laboratory Diagnosis of Syphilis: A Manual for Students and Physicians.

New York: P. B. Hoeber. [OCLC 14783533]

Honors during Noguchi's lifetime

Noguchi was honored with Japanese and foreign decorations. He received honorary degrees from a number of universities.

The bust of the Japanese scientist and doctor Hideyo Noguchi was inaugurated on June 22, 2018, outside the Crystal Palace in Guayaquil

Noguchi was self-effacing in his public life, and he often referred to himself as "Funny Noguchi" as noted in Times Magazine. When Noguchi was awarded an honorary doctorate at Yale, William Lyon Phelps observed that the kings of Spain, Denmark and Sweden had conferred awards, but "perhaps he appreciates even more than royal honors the admiration and the gratitude of the people."

• Kyoto Imperial University, Doctor of Medicine, 1909.
• Knight of the Order of Dannebrog, 1913 (Denmark).
• Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, 1913 (Spain).
• Commander of the Order of the Polar Star, 1914 (Sweden).
• Tokyo Imperial University, Doctor of Science, 1914.
• Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, 1915.
• Imperial Award, Imperial Academy (Japan), 1915.
• Central University of Ecuador, 1919, (Ecuador).
• National University of San Marcos, 1920, (Peru)
• Medicine School of Merida, "Doctor Honoris Causa en Medicina y Cirugía", 1920 (México)
• University of Guayaquil, 1919, Ecuador.
• Yale University, 1921, (United States).
• Knight of the Legion of Honour of France, 1924
• Senior fifth rank in the order of precedence, Japanese government, 1925

Posthumous honors

Hideyo Noguchi on the ¥1,000 banknote

The grave of Hideyo Noguchi in Woodlawn Cemetery

Noguchi's remains were returned to the United States and buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.

In 1928, the Japanese government awarded Noguchi the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, which represents the second highest of eight classes associated with the award.

In 1979, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) was founded with funds donated by the Japanese government at the University of Ghana in Legon, a suburb north of Accra.

In 1981, the Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental (National Institute of Mental Health) "Honorio Delgado - Hideyo Noguchi" was founded with founds of the Peruvian Government and the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) in Lima - Perú.

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

Noguchi's name is honored at the Centro de Investigaciones Regionales Dr. Hideyo Noguchi at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán.

A 2.1 km street in Guayaquil, Ecuador downtown is named after Dr. Hideyo Noguchi.

Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize

The footstone of Hideyo Noguchi in Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City

The Japanese Government established the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize in July 2006 as a new international medical research and services award to mark the official visit by Prime Minister Jun'ichirō Koizumi to Africa in May 2006 and the 80th anniversary of Dr. Noguchi's death. The Prize is awarded to individuals with outstanding achievements in combating various infectious diseases in Africa or in establishing innovative medical service systems. The presentation ceremony and laureate lectures coincided with the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in late April 2008. In 2009, the conference venue was moved from Tokyo to Yokohama as another way of honoring the man after whom the prize was named. In 1899, Dr. Noguchi worked at the Yokohama Port Quarantine Office as an assistant quarantine doctor.

The Prize is expected to be awarded every five years. The prize has been made possible through a combination of government funding and private donations.

See also

• List of medicine awards
• Max Theiler - completed Noguchi's work, yellow fever vaccine (1926)
• Human experimentation in the United States
• Tōki Rakujitsu - Japanese film

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• Noguerea, J J (October 2007). "Hideyo Noguchi and trachoma (Inawashiro, Japan, 1876--Accra, Ghana, 1928)". Archivos de la Sociedad Española de Oftalmología. 82 (10): 661–2. doi:10.4321/s0365-66912007001000014. ISSN 0365-6691. PMID 17929213.
• Sri Kantha, S. "Hideyo Noguchi's research on yellow fever (1918–1928) in the pre-electron microscopic era", Kitasato Archives of Experimental Medicine, April 1989; 62(1): 1–9.
• Takazoe, Ichiro (October 2002). "[Achievement by Hideyo Noguchi]". Nippon Naika Gakkai Zasshi. 91 (10): 2887–90. ISSN 0021-5384. PMID 12451642.
• Takeda, Yoshifumi (November 2003). "[Great Japanese bacteriologists in the Meiji, Taisho and Showa era]". Nippon Saikingaku Zasshi. 58 (4): 645–55. doi:10.3412/jsb.58.645. ISSN 0021-4930. PMID 14699855.
• "[Hideyo Noguchi--pioneer bacteriologist]". Orvosi Hetilap. 118 (4): 213–5. January 1977. ISSN 0030-6002. PMID 319394.

External links

• Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Legon
• Japanese Government Internet TV: streaming video, "Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize," 2007/04/26 (5 mins.)
• Fukushima Prefecture: "The Dreamer, Hideyo Noguchi," slide show Archived 2015-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
• Cabinet Office, Government of Japan: Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS): Purpose and Description of the Noguchi Prize
• National Diet Library: NDL portrait
• Yomiuri Shimbun: Noguchi -- slightly less than 90% name recognition amongst primary school students in Japan, 2008.