Qualifications
M.D.(Japan), DTM&H (London), MSc Clinical Tropical Medicine (London), PhD (U.K.)
Personal/work Web page addresses
http://www.tm.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/internal/nekkennaika.htm
Contact
kari@nagasaki-u.ac.jp
Affiliation(s)
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Institute of Tropical Medicine (NEKKEN)
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Nagasaki University Hospital
- School of Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nagasaki University
- Honorary Professor, Clinical Research Department, Faculty of Infectious Tropical Medicine, London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, UK
Background
I had my residency training in internal medicine in Tokyo, 1986-1988. From those days I was interested in working in Africa, which let me do DTMH in London, followed by a post-graduate clinical training in Harare Central Hospital, Zimbabwe, 1989 where I encountered my life work, AIDS. My master project on HIV viral load at LSHTM in 1990 was very successful that I was offered a job as a clinical research fellow at the Jefferiss Wing, St. Mary’s Hospital. My asset of multi-disciplinary human-network has been established when working in London, Oxford and West Africa for 8 years as well as in Tokyo at NIID for 3 years and in Thailand for JICA for 4 years.
Teaching
I am the course director of Master of Tropical Medicine (MTM) where I teach clinical tropical medicine, malaria and non-malaria febrile illness, STD and HIV/AIDS. I also facilitate the tropical infectious disease case discussion.
As a chief of NEKKEN training/education center, I also organize the three-month diploma course of tropical medicine.
Research
HIV research had been a core of my carrier before joining NEKKEN. It broadened my skills to understand a disease from multidisciplinary aspects such as behavioral, epidemiological, clinical science, molecular immunology and virology. Most of my work has derived from clinical-epidemiology settings such as cohort or case-control studies. I enjoy digging out clinical research questions by seeing patients and discussing with medical professionals. On joining to the current group of NEKKEN, my research topic has been broaden toward pneumonia in low, middle and high-income countries, non-malarial febrile illness such as typhus, leptospirosis. Now we have on-going studies in infectious disease wards in North Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan.
Discussing in an overcrowded ward in Bac Mai Hospital, Vietnam with Dr. Thuy, one of the most experienced I.D. physicians.
The country/countries where you work currently
- The Philippines
- Vietnam
- Thailand
- Japan
Five MOST IMPORTANT/INTERESTING recent publications
Hyperlink to the NAOSITE of each paper will be posted if it is “open access”, so that viewers can jump straight to the text of the paper.
- Kitashoji E, Koizumi N, Lacuesta TLV, Usuda D, Ribo MR, Tria ES, Go WS, Kojiro M, Parry CM, Dimaano EM, Villarama JB, Ohnishi M, Suzuki M, Ariyoshi K. Diagnostic Accuracy of Recombinant immunoglobulin-like Protein A-Based IgM ELISA for the Early Diagnosis of Leptospirosis in the Philippines. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 9(6): e0003879.（2015）
- Morimoto K, Suzuki M, Ishifuji T, Yaegashi M, Asoh N, Hamashige N, Abe M, Aoshima M, Ariyoshi K; Adult Pneumonia Study Group-Japan (APSG-J). The burden and etiology of community-onset pneumonia in the aging Japanese population: a multicenter prospective study. PLoS One. 10(3): e0122247.（2015）
- Hamaguchi S, Cuong NC, Tra DT, Doan YH, Shimizu K, Tuan NQ, Yoshida LM, Mai LQ, Duc-Anh D, Ando S, Arikawa J, Parry CM, Ariyoshi K, Thuy PT. Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics of Scrub Typhus and Murine Typhus Among Hospitalized Patients with Acute Undifferentiated Fever in Northern Vietnam. Am J Trop Med Hyg. pii: 14-0806.（2015）
- Dhoubhadel BG, Yasunami M, Nguyen HA, Suzuki M, Vu TH, Thi Thuy Nguyen A, Dang DA, Yoshida LM, Ariyoshi K. Bacterial load of pneumococcal serotypes correlates with their prevalence and multiple serotypes is associated with acute respiratory infections among children less than 5 years of age. PLoS One. 31;9(10):e110777.（2014）
- M Mori, N Wichukchinda, R Miyahara, A Rojanawiwat, P Pathipvanich, T Maekawa, T Miura, P Goulder, M Yasunami, K Ariyoshi, P. Sawanpanyalert. HLA-B*35:05 is a protective allele with a unique structure amongst HIV-1 CRF01_AE-infected Thais, where the B*57 frequency is low. AIDS ; 28(7): 959-67.（2014）
Link to other publications
Message
My asset is a human-network developed while working as a AIDS-researcher and a clinician in the UK MRC Laboratories, The Gambia, West Africa for 6 years. I then spent 4 years in Thailand for a JICA-project on HIV/AIDS; since becoming a professor of Nagasaki University, developed various clinical-epidemiology research projects in Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan; also have a role in the infectious disease ward at the University Hospital. Head of center for training/education, NEKKEN; Deputy Dean of the School of Tropical Medicine and Global Health. Message for students: ” if you want to make a substantial impact on health in resource-constrained setting, you should work hard.”