Noguchi Institute to get advanced research centre

The sod has been cut for the construction of an advanced research centre for infectious diseases at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research of the University of Ghana, to provide an efficient and safe research and teaching environment for staff and students of the institute.

Upon completion in September 2018, the centre will further promote the institute’s role in responding to the ever expanding research and training needs of the country in particular and the West African sub-region as a whole.
It is also expected to respond effectively to disease outbreaks such as highly pathogenic agents, including Ebola.
Japanese support
The project is being funded by the Japanese government with additional funding of $21 million from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the construction of a biosafety laboratory, virology, bacteriology and immunology laboratories and training spaces at the centre.
At the sod-cutting ceremony last Wednesday, the Chief Representative at the JICA-Ghana Office, Mr Hirofumi Hoshi, gave the history of the relationship between JICA and the institute which dated back from 1969, when a team of doctors from Japan were despatched to the University of Ghana Medical School to establish the first biomedical research institute in Ghana.
He said since then JICA had been working with the institute in the area of joint research works, disease control projects and improvement of infrastructure through a grant aid.
Mr Hoshi said this year also marked the 89th anniversary of the death of Dr Noguchi, the Japanese doctor who died in Ghana while researching into the causes of yellow fever, after whom the institute was named.
He congratulated the institute for its remarkable contribution to Ghana’s public health service and that of the sub-region.
Health minister
The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyemang Manu, expressed optimism that the health system in the country would be further enhanced with the construction of the edifice which demonstrated a collective desire to provide a modern and advanced technological intervention for the control of infectious diseases.
He submitted that infectious diseases remained a leading cause of death in developing countries and among children worldwide, accounting for 41 per cent of the global disease burden.
“The impact of new infections on our people cannot be underestimated and for that matter there is the need to continuously explore through research, training and sharpening the skills and competences of our medical research in infection prevention and control,” Mr Agyemang Manu said.
He pledged the preparedness of the ministry to partner and support any cause in that direction and was pleased that the project was happening at a time when the ministry was collaborating with the 37 Military Hospital to resource the Debrah Ward for managing infectious diseases with a comprehensive training plan.
The Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, said during his tenure as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the university, the institute acquired many facilities with support from the government of Japan.
He said such facilities had enabled the country to contain major disease outbreaks and recalled the several interventions the institute made during the outbreak of Ebola, which plagued some West African states.
The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Kaoru Yoshimura, said the bonds of friendship between Ghana and Japan would continue to blossom and pledged continued Japanese assistance to Ghana.