The World NTD Day Japan Preparatory Committee held a special webinar event on January 30th, 2025, for “World NTD Day” to raise understanding and interest in Neglected Tropical Diseases. An award ceremony was also held that day for the “Second Neglected Tropical Diseases Student Contest,” a contest open to students from junior high school to graduate school level which was organized by the NTDs Youth Organization. Award winners, selected from among 56 participants and 35 teams, were announced.

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of 21 infectious diseases designated by the World Health Organization (WHO). More than 1.6 billion people are at risk of infection, particularly those in communities in low- and middle- income countries, and these diseases can have a tremendous impact on their health and lives. Despite the huge needs in terms of health technologies for diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs, NTDs are under-researched, under-treated and under-funded.

The purpose of the student contest was to raise awareness of these overlooked NTDs, to provide people with a better understanding of them, and to promote activities aimed at achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The GHIT Fund believes that it is extremely important to provide the younger generation with opportunities to see NTDs as a personal issue and to think about and present ways in which they can help combat NTDs across academic discipline and generational lines. As with last year, the GHIT Fund once again sponsored and collaborated in the Neglected Tropical Diseases Student Contest and webinar event.

At the start of the webinar, Osamu Kunii, CEO & Executive Director of the GHIT Fund, and Junichi Takahashi, Director, Office of Global Health Cooperation, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, spoke about their organizations’ perspectives on the current state of NTDs, as well as past efforts and future prospects for addressing these challenges. GHIT Fund CEO Osamu Kunii said, "Change starts with knowledge, but the next step, action, is the key to solving the problem of NTDs." He talked about his hopes that the passion and ideas of the participants in the webinar and contest would provide new inspiration and lead to new efforts to eliminate NTDs.

The first part of the event was the awards ceremony for the Second Neglected Tropical Diseases Student Contest. The contest was open to students from junior high to graduate school. Its goals were to increase students’ understanding and interest in NTDs and to have them think about what they could do to tackle this issue.

The 35 entries underwent rounds of preliminary judging and social media judging. The final round of judging was on January 11th, when the recipients of the Grand Prize in the A and B categories, the U-18 Special Award, the GHIT Award, and the Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Award were chosen.

(The final round of presentations)

The GHIT Award went to three first-year students in Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen Shibuya Senior High School. Their winning submission not only conveyed the current state of NTDs in an easy-to-understand way, but also included concrete actions, such as putting up posters in their school to raise awareness of NTDs. Another point judges praised regarding their submission was that the three students, who became more interested in infectious diseases as a result of the COVID pandemic, had created their submission as a partnership.

The grand prize in the A category went to three first-year students in Shiga Prefectural Moriyama High School, who presented a video that explained NTDs and specific examples using a relatable quiz format. The grand prize in the B category went to four members of the Tottori University Tropical Medicine Association who collaborated with a university in the Philippines to plan, implement, and report on actions for increasing the understanding of schistosomiasis among locals.

The second part of the event featured a dialog-style panel discussion between young people and experts on the topic of skin diseases.

There were five speakers: Rie Yotsu (associate professor at the Tulane School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, and Director of Clover Health International), Chizu Sanjoba (Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo), Fumiya Sakai (Tropical Medicine Association, University of the Ryukyus), Sota Ishihara, who won both the grand prize in the A category and the U-18 Award (Shiga Prefectural Moriyama High School), and Yuya Yoshikawa (Tottori University Tropical Medicine Research Group), who represented the team that won the grand prize in the B category. They discussed the current situation surrounding skin diseases such as leishmaniasis and leprosy, the challenges involved, and how to become involved in global health, actively fielding questions and sharing their views. Through the fascinating discussion, they deepened attendees' understandings and provided future advice for the youth at the event.

The webinar and contest not only gave participants a deeper understanding of NTDs, but it also provided opportunities that could lead to new, concrete action and perspectives by members of the next generation. Watch a video of the webinar and award ceremony from the link below (Japanese only).

-  2025 World NTD Day Webinar

-  Second Neglected Tropical Diseases Student Contest Winners List

References:

- Information about the Second Neglected Tropical Diseases Student Contest (NTDs Youth Organization)

   https://www.ntds-youth-japan.org/our-project/contest/

- GHIT Fund support for the Second Neglected Tropical Diseases Student Contest

   https://www.ghitfund.org/newsroom/events/detail/463/en

-  First Neglected Tropical Diseases Student Contest Award Ceremony

   https://www.ghitfund.org/newsroom/events/detail/427/en