＜NTD pressure protection in Japan＞

The fact that Japan was once a serious epidemic of filariasis and schistosomiasis and was controlled by the efforts of researchers, government and residents from prewar to postwar is generally not well known. Filariasis has been recorded in records since the Heian period, but it was not until 1912 that the first full-scale infiltration investigation in Japan was conducted. As a result, a strong epidemic was confirmed in Hachijo Kojima, Nansei Islands (Okinawa, Amami) and southwestern Kyushu. Since the 1950s, research has been conducted mainly on the University of Tokyo, Kagoshima University, and Nagasaki University on clinical pathology, blood tests, administration of the antifilaria drug diethylcarbamazine (DEC), countermeasures against side effects, and countermeasures against vector mosquitoes. Based on the results, a state-led filariasis control project will start, and in about 30 years, lymphatic filariasis will be eradicated. Schistosomiasis was endemic because it was prevalent mainly in the Kofu basin in Yamanashi prefecture, the Katayama region in Hiroshima prefecture, and the Chikugo river basin in Fukuoka prefecture. The discovery of Schistosoma japonicum was discovered in 1904, and the discovery of an intermediate host (Miyairi shellfish) was in 1913, both of which were the results of research by the Japanese. With the discovery of the transmission route, intermediate host measures were taken as anti-pressure measures, and fecal treatment and treatment, and insect carrier animal measures were also actively taken. As a result, the end of the epidemic was confirmed in various places in the 1980s.