Hideyo Noguchi
Africa Prize
Government of Japan

What is the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize ?

1. Ideal and Objectives
The Government of Japan established the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize in July 2006 in memory of Dr.
Hideyo Noguchi whose contribution to medical advancement and self-sacrificing activities in Africa remaina paragon of professionalism. Mindful of the ominous human suffering persisting in Africa, the region facing
the most serious health challenges on the planet, the Prize aims to honor individuals with outstandingachievements in the fields of medical research and medical services to combat infectious and other diseases
in Africa, thus contributing to the health and welfare of the African people and of all humankind.

2. Scope(1) Medical Research Category: Basic medical research / clinical medical research / research in all
fields of the life science closely related to medicine(2) Medical Services Category: Field-level medical/ public health activities to combat diseases andadvance public health

3. Eligibility●Nominees shall be still living, but otherwise no distinction will be made based on nationality, age orgender. In the case of nominating an organization, it must be currently active.

●

Medical Research Category: Nominations are in principle to be for one individual. In the case of joint
research, however, a maximum of three individuals will be considered.

●

Medical Services Category: Nominations are in principle to be one individual or one organization peractivity. Under exceptional circumstances, however, when more than one individual or organization
work as a team, a maximum of three individuals or organizations will be considered.

4. Frequency
The Prize is awarded to coincide with the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).
First Award Ceremony: May 2008 (TICAD IV)

Second Award Ceremony: June 2013 (TICAD V)

Third Award Ceremony: August 2019 (TICAD 7)

Fourth Award Ceremony: August 2022 (TICAD 8)

For the fifth Award, the laureates will be known on the occasion of TICAD 9, which is scheduled to be heldin Japan in 2025.

What is TICAD?
TICAD stands for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development. It is aninternational conference on subjects related to African development. It began in 1993 ont he initiative of Japan, and today is co-organized wit h t he United Nations, t he United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Union Commission (AUC), and theWorld Bank. The 8th TICAD was held in Tunisia in Africa on August 27‒28, 2022.

5. Value of the Prize(1) At the award ceremony, the Prize is awarded in both the medical research and medical services
categories, with a citation, medal and honorarium (100 million yen).
(2) For the prize honorarium, in addition to the government fund, donations from both inside andoutside Japan are invited.

Hideyo Noguchi
Africa Prize

6. Selection Process

In the selection process, a recommendation sub-committee for each field, consisting of experts, will narrow
down the candidates to a field of three from among those who have received recommendations in Japanand overseas. From among these candidates, the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Committee will recommend
the final candidates to the Prime Minister of Japan, and the Prime Minister decide the laureates.

Nominations from all over the world

Selection Committee for Medical Research Category

Selection Committee for Medical Services Category

Candidates are nominatedHideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Committee
Final candidates are nominatedLaureates are decided by the Prime Minister of JapanDr. Hideyo Noguchi
Hideyo Noguchi (1876‒1928) was a prominent Japanese bacteriologist in the early twentiethcentury. In spite of a physical handicap, burn on his left hand during his early childhood, hemanaged to obtain, through extraordinarily hard work, a license to practice medicine in
Japa n. He moved to t he United States in 1900 to work w it h Prof. Simon Flexner at t heUniversity of Pennsylvania and in 1904 joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research(now Rockefeller University). He made important studies of snake venoms, of smallpox andyel low-fever vacci ne s , a nd of t he laborator y d ia g nosi s of t rachoma . One of h i s mostimportant achievements of t his period wa s t he successful cult ivat ion of pure Sy philis
Spirochaeta in 1911 which brought him to world prominence.
After extensive travel throughout Central and South America researching on vaccines for suchdiseases as yellow fever, Oroya fever and poliomyelitis which threatened the lives of millions
of people in those days, he eventually ventured into Africa to confirm his findings. He tried todemonstrate the hypothesis that yellow fever was caused by spirochete bacteria but in vain,
because at that time the electron microscope to observe viruses had not been invented yet.
While working in Accra, Ghana, he was struck down by the yellow fever virus, his last words being“I don’t understand.”Thegrave of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York, the United States, is inscribed with the following epitaph:“Through devotion to science, he lived and died for humanity.”In 2004, Dr. Noguchi became the first Japanese scientist to
have his portrait printed on a Japanese banknote (1000-yen note).

Dr. Hideyo Noguchi in his lab at the Rockefeller Institutefor Medical Research (Photo: The Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Foundation)

The grave of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi in Woodlawn Cemetery(Photo: New York Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Society, Inc. (HNMS))Laureates for the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize
Titles are as of the time of Prize awarding.

The First Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize (in 2008)

Medical Research Category

Dr. Brian Greenwood (United Kingdom)

Medical Services Category

Prof. Miriam K. Were (Kenya)

Professor,London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Chairperson,
National AIDS Control Council (NACC), KenyaDr. Greenwood was awarded
the Prize in recognition of his
more than 30 years ofmultidisciplinary researchand practical measures forcombating infectious diseases
including malaria in Africa.
After receiving the prize, hehelped establish the Africa
London Nagasaki (ALN)
scholarship in cooperation
with Nagasaki University.
Through the fund, he has supported the education ofoutstanding young African scientists in the fields of infectious
diseases, public health, and tropical medicine. Dr. Greenwood
was presented with the Canada Gairdner Global HealthAward in 2012.

Prof. Were was awarded
the Prize in recognition ofher dedicated work to
improve the health andwelfare of people living inAfrica, focused oncommunity-based practical
health care services.
After receiving the prize,
she has engaged in training
community healthworkers, promoting carefor AIDS orphans, and providing training to young
people, while making efforts to promote the Maternaland Child Health Handbook (originated in Japan) in
Africa. In 2020, she was awarded the Order of theRising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon.

The Second Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize (in 2013)

Medical Research Category

Dr. Peter Piot (Belgium)

Titles are as of the time of Prize awarding.

Medical Services Category

Dr. Alex G. Coutinho (Uganda)

Director and Professor,London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Executive Director,
Infectious Disease Institute, Makerere University

Dr. Piot was awarded thePrize in recognition of his
pivotal research on
infectious diseases that
affect people in numerous
regions of Africa,
particularly HIV/AIDSand Ebola.
After receiving the prize,
he has used hishonorarium to provide
financial support tostudents and researchers from Africa, and has also
been involved in the Global Health InnovativeTechnology Fund (GHIT Fund) established in Japan.
In 2018, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of theOrder of the Rising Sun.

Dr. Coutinho was awarded
the Prize in recognition ofhis pioneering work in
Africa to increase
opportunities to accesstreatment for people withHIV.
After receiving the prize,
he has promoted efforts toprovide better medicalcare to the people ofUganda. He occupies
several global health leadership roles and is a mentor
to future global health leaders around the world.

Hideyo Noguchi
Africa Prize
Titles are as of the time of Prize awarding.

The Third Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize (in 2019)

Medical Research Category

Medical Services Category

Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum

Dr. Francis Gervase Omaswa (Uganda)(Democratic Republic of the Congo)
General Director,
National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB)

Executive Director of African Center
for Global Health and Social Transformation (ACHEST)

Dr. Muyembe-Tamfum
was awarded the Prize inrecognition of his research
to confront Ebola andother deadly viruses andefforts to train legions ofdisease-fighters.
After receiving the award,
he was appointed tocoordinate the national
response to the Ebola
virus and Covid-19(2020-2022). In 2021, he became Chairman of theCongolese Academy of Sciences. In 2021, he received
the Lifetime Achievement in Public Health Award at
the International Conference on Public Health inAfrica (CPHIA21).

Dr. Omaswa was awarded
the Prize in recognition of
his dedication to addressing
the global health workforce(HWF) crisis including
education, training, retention
and migration of healthcare
workers and for building
pro-people health andmedical systems not only
across Africa, but
worldwide.
After receiving the award, he has been engaged in various
activities, and in 2021, he was appointed by the Presidentof Uganda as the first Chancellor of Soroti University. He is
also working on the Freda M Omaswa and Hideyo Noguchi
Center for Health and Society construction project.

The Fourth Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize (in 2022)

Titles are as of the time of Prize awarding.

Medical Research Category

Medical Services Category

Dr. Salim S. Abdool Karim (South Africa)

Guinea Worm Eradication Program

Director, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Researchin South Africa (CAPRISA)

Dr. Quarraisha Abdool Karim (South Africa)(United States)
The Carter Center, United States

Associate Scientific Director, Centre for the AIDS Programmeof Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)

Drs. Salim and Quarraisha Abdool Karim, who are husband
and wife, are epidemiologists that founded the Centre for theAIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) inDurban, South Africa in 2002 and have made an important
contribution to the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in
Africa. In particular, they have made significant
achievements in the development of early introduction ofantiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/tuberculosis
co-infected patients, the development of methods to prevent
HIV transmission in African communities, and thedemonstration of HIV prophylactic vaginal agents.

The Guinea Worm Eradication Program is an international
campaign led by The Carter Center in partnership withAfrican stakeholders to eradicate a human disease for thesecond time in history. The Program was given anorganizational award for succeeding in the almost complete
eradication of Guinea worm disease, under the leadership ofThe Carter Center and in collaboration with Africanministries of health, local communities, NGOs and key
partners such as the World Health Organization (WHO) andthe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Invitation for Donations forthe Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize FundAs part of the sum to be awarded for this prize, we are inviting donations
widely from those who support the idea of this prize. Your goodwill
donations will be used to support the work of people who are playing
active roles in improving medical research and medical services in Africa.

About inquiries for donations, please contact:
Citizen Participation Promotion Division, Domestic Strategy and Partnership
Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
E-mail: jicata-kifu1@jica.go.jp

Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize website▶ https://www.cao.go.jp/noguchisho/english/index.html

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Photos of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi: Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Foundation

Office of Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize, Cabinet Office
1-11-39 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0014, Japan