June 3, 2002 Tokyo Japan

Jointly organized by WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia & The Nippon Foundation/Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation

SASAKAWA MEMORIAL HEALTH FOUNDATION

　

We are honored to have with us today the Honorable Minister of Health of India, Dr. C.P. Thakur, and other distinguished members of the Indian government, as well as his Excellency Mr. Aftab Seth, Indian Ambassador to Japan and Dr. Maria Neira, head of Communicable Disease Control, Prevention and Elimination at WHO Headquarters in Geneva. I would also like to extend my warmest welcome to all of the health secretaries from the various states of India who have come so far for this very short meeting in Tokyo, and especially the members of the International Federation of Antileprosy Organization (ILEP) who are continuing their steady efforts in India. And of course, we must not forget to pay our deepest respects to Dr. Uton Muchtar Rafei of the South East Asia Regional office of WHO (SEARO), without whose efforts we would not be here today. As one of the sponsors of this Tokyo meeting it gives me the greatest pleasure to have all of you gathered here.

　

We say in Japan that "we must put aside trivial differences, and focus on the larger common objective." Today, the Government of India, WHO, and ILEP have shown laudable foresight and conviction by doing just this. The ILEP members have further shown us their determination by each paying their own expenses to be here. Your commitment, your participation in this meeting, is truly an inspiration.

　

The Nippon Foundation's leprosy programs have their true origins in my father's youth. His family owned a well-known local brewery. There was a beautiful girl in his neighborhood who never left her house. Then one day, she suddenly disappeared. It was later revealed that she had leprosy. Seeing this motivated my father to start his work on the disease. Ever since that day, whenever he went to a foreign country, he would always visit two places-its tomb of the Unknown Soldier and its leprosy facilities.

　

Then, in 1973, Dr. Morizo Ishidate, the father of Japanese leprosy medicine, Professor Kenzo Kiikuni (now the chair of the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation), my father and I came together in a historical luncheon from which was born the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation.

　

From the start, our objective was to cure each and every patient in the world. To this end, we conducted extensive research. As a result of this work, my father was able to express, in one action, all of the feelings that he had developed about leprosy over the years: at WHO Headquarters he had the leprosy vaccine injected into his own body. Thus, he unequivocally expressed his solidarity with the patients of the world. In following years, former WHO Director General Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima and Dr. Yo Yuasa (now Executive Director of the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation) formed a team which initiated a trial and later national implementation of an extremely effective form of treatment, commonly known as MDT in the Philippines.

　

A direct result of their work was the Hanoi Declaration in which, as you know, I decided to provide MDT free of charge to the patients of the world for the five years from 1995 to 1999. We did this with the strong collaboration of WHO, but unfortunately, when we reached 2000, leprosy had still not been totally eliminated. In that year Novartis joined us as a new partner, helping us to continue this free distribution.

　

Just before my father died, he charged me with the responsibility of continuing to strive for the elimination of leprosy. Since his passing, I have done just that. I have taken a vow to continue what my father started and I have taken this work to heart. I try to work on the vanguard of the battle against leprosy by visiting the people who are actually suffering from the disease. For example, when I attended GAEL conference in Brazil some time ago, I made a point of traveling into the most remote areas of the Amazon, so that I could visit patients there. Today as well, I am just back from visiting people who have been cloistered on nearly inaccessible islands in Korea.

　

Due to all of our work, there are, for the most part, about six countries that have yet to achieve our goal. The most important of these is India. I am committed to continuing this work, both in that country and around the world. And I think you can see my commitment in the fact that the money that we have spent since 1975, either through WHO or directly, totals more than 200 million US dollars.

　

I feel that I need to say something else to you this morning: I myself am nothing more than a private citizen. WHO's objective of "less than one patient in 10,000" is very ambitious and for this historical great work to succeed, WHO, the related governments and ILEP, which has continued this work for many years, must all join hands. None of us alone can achieve much of anything. But we are really moving forward together. In the future, when the world is faced with other difficult hurdles, I want it to be able to look to our example as a model case of how major problems should be overcome. All of you representatives of NGOs who have come here to Tokyo are taking part in a deeply significant process.

　

Our movement, I personally feel, must not limit itself to simple elimination, but after that, must continue on to eradication and further, to ending the social discrimination surrounding the disease.

　

I am doing what I can to bring this issue to the attention of the general public. Some time ago at an international conference that I hosted with President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, there was a session on "Health and Human Rights." I spoke on the topic of "Leprosy and Human Rights." It was probably the first time that this topic had been broached at a non-medical international conference. Many in the audience were very moved, and I expect that it will not be the last time I talk on the topic.

　

I always say at leprosy conferences that in a 100-mile journey, finishing the first 99 is no better than finishing fifty. It is the last mile that is the most difficult. To many people, when we say leprosy, we think of India. When we say India, we think of leprosy. We have to acknowledge that this is an image that people have around the world. As a large first step in eliminating leprosy by the year 2005, the Minister of Health and all of you have taken time out of your very busy schedules to spend three days here for this Tokyo meeting. This shows your passion to achieve our 2005 objective. WHO, government representatives, those of you representing NGOs and our two foundations must also commit ourselves, join our strength and stand together. Then, we will succeed in this historical work.

　

Thank you.