Stakeholder Message

Chairman, Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association

Excluding the three-year period during which the COVID-19 virus ran rampant, tuberculosis has for many years been the single largest cause of death by infectious disease globally. It used to be known as the national disease of Japan, but in recent years the incidence rate has declined and we have become a low-prevalence country. However, it remains an important health problem, even among OECD member countries, where elderly people are at the highest risk of tuberculosis and the proportion of young patients born overseas is on the constant rise. Among elderly people diagnosis is often delayed due to the lack of typical symptoms, resulting in examples of severe cases and transmission to younger generations.
Tuberculosis is still prevalent in developing countries. As was the case in Japan, people in the prime of their working lives die from tuberculosis, which is a serious socioeconomic problem. The issues faced by many developing countries are that they lack medical infrastructure and that there are few engineers specializing in testing, which means that tuberculosis is often discovered late or overlooked. For as long as tuberculosis is not eradicated in the rest of the world, it will not be eradicated in Japan. Tuberculosis is a permanent pandemic

A target of eradicating tuberculosis globally by 2035* has been set, but technological innovation will be indispensable for achieving this. The various tests for tuberculosis include culture tests, smear tests, and PCR, but LAMP is a test born of Japanese technology. It gives quick results, and because it does not require complex machinery it can be used anywhere. Because it is easy to perform the test procedure and interpret the results, it can be used by anybody. Technical support provided to the countries of Asia and Africa is also making a major contribution to the detection of tuberculosis patients who have been overlooked. It is a test that could help eradicate tuberculosis globally.

Naturally it is expected to contribute to the eradication of tuberculosis, but there are also hopes that it will help to control infectious diseases other than tuberculosis, such as malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Controlling infectious diseases globally will require the strengthening of healthcare systems and cooperation between industry, academia, government, and the private sector. Those of us alive today have a grave responsibility to determine what sort of world we will leave to the next generation of children. Implementing steadfast countermeasures in all countries against tuberculosis, which is the most widespread infectious disease globally, is an important duty that we as adults must fulfill on behalf of children. I expect LAMP to play a role in achieving this goal.

*End TB Strategy: An initiative that targets a reduction in annual tuberculosis incidence rates of 90% by 2035 compared to 2015, a reduction in deaths by 95% compared to 2015, and a reduction in catastrophic impacts on household finances caused by tuberculosis to zero, and sets out measures to achieve them. It was adopted by the Global Health Council in 2014.