Tag - medicine

 
 

MEDICINE

A woman with HTLV-1 from Okinawa Prefecture talks about her experience of being turned away at a clinic outside the prefecture.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Sep 25, 2023
Website aims to shed light on little-known blood cancer virus
Awareness of HTLV-1, a virus that causes adult T-cell leukemia and other diseases, is low in Japan. A website called Hot Lives aims to change that.
An electron micrograph of the bacteria treponema, which causes syphilis
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 25, 2023
Syphilis cases in Japan top 10,000 for second year in 2023
It is unclear why new cases have shot up, reaching 10,000 two months earlier than last year.
Amgen's office in South San Francisco, California
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 25, 2023
Big Pharma bets on AI to speed up clinical trials
AI is playing a sizeable and growing role in human drug trials.
Kazunori Kataoka (left), director-general of the Innovation Center of NanoMedicine at the Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion in Kanagawa Prefecture; Masahi Yanagisawa (right), director of the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 20, 2023
Two Japanese researchers picked as 2023 Citation Laureates
Clarivate names researchers as Citation Laureates if they have made Nobel Prize-level research achievements and their papers are cited frequently.
A vial of the Moderna COVID-19 booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. Japan will roll out an updated version targeting the XBB variant on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Sep 19, 2023
Japan to begin COVID vaccine drive targeting XBB subvariant
The free shots will be offered until March next year to prepare residents for an expected uptick in infections during the winter.
Nobody wishes for a medical emergency, but preparing for one while you're in a foreign country can only make things easier.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Sep 18, 2023
How to avoid medical purgatory when hospitalized in Japan
Much like a legal will, a visit to the hospital is the last thing for which you want to prepare — yet doing so will save you stress and worry.
New health minister Keizo Takemi is the son of Taro Takemi, a prominent physician who was dubbed “Emperor Takemi” due to the enormous and often dictatorial power he wielded over health care policy as president of the Japan Medical Association.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 15, 2023
Critics worry about new health minister's ties with lobby group
Keizo Takemi is the son of a former president of the Japan Medical Association, a political lobby mostly made up of doctors in private practice.
An image of a fetus on the screen of a portable ultrasound system.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 15, 2023
The world’s first artificial womb is on the way
The artificial placentas are intended to help struggling prematurely born infants develop much like they would in the prenatal environment.
Epitheses of various body parts at Ikeyama Medical Japan in Nagoya
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional voices: Chubu
Sep 11, 2023
Epithesis — offering appearance care to cancer patients
The use of epithesis — artificial reconstructions of body parts — is beginning to attract attention.
A man receives a COVID-19 vaccination  at Aoyama University in Tokyo in August 2021.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 9, 2023
Japan to end free COVID-19 vaccinations in March
From fiscal 2024, the country will provide a COVID-19 shot once a year between to people aged 65 or over who are at high risk of severe symptoms.
Preliminary data suggests that updated COVID-19 boosters, which are matched to a previous variant known as XBB, could still offer protection against the new edition.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2023
New Pirola COVID-19 variant shows value of booster shots
Data suggests the updated COVID-19 boosters, which are matched to the XBB variant, could still offer decent protection against the new edition.
A woman shops for medicine at a drugstore in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 5, 2023
More young women overdosing on over-the-counter drugs
In a country where illicit drugs are hard to obtain, many have begun to abuse cough and cold medications, which are legal and easily accessible.
A health ministry panel of experts discuss their approval for an RSV vaccine during their meeting on Monday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 29, 2023
Panel OKs first RSV vaccine in Japan
People age 60 or older will be eligible to receive the vaccine.
A survey by a health ministry research team has found that a significant proportion of doctors in Japan are at risk of death from overwork.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 29, 2023
Around 20% of doctors in Japan at risk of death from overwork
A survey showed that 20.4% of full-time doctors worked over 60 hours per week, exceeding the weekly legal working hours of 40 hours.
One big challenge public health officials now face is how to restore trust so that people listen to future guidance on everything from flu shots to childhood vaccines.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2023
Not all COVID-19 ‘misinformation’ is equal — nor misinformation
Public health scientists have to figure out how to get back to the kind of nuanced, thoughtful discussions that were the pre-pandemic norm.
A Japanese doctor helps a non-Japanese patient check in at the front desk of a hospital.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 25, 2023
Let’s get clinical: Navigating a trip to a Japanese hospital
You don't need to be stressed out about your linguistic ability when you check into a Japanese hospital, so brush up on some terms beforehand.
Packages of lecanemab, marketed as Leqembi, for the U.S. market
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 21, 2023
Japanese ministry panel gives OK to Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab
The panel’s endorsement will be followed by official approval by the health minister in coming days.
Novo Nordisk' anti-obesity drug Wegovy
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2023
Insurers can’t avoid covering weight-loss drugs forever
Evidence is mounting that drugs like Wegovy not only help patients lose weight but also help prevent heart attacks and strokes.
An ayurvedic doctor performs a traditional therapy at SGVP Holistic hospital in Ahmedabad, India, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 17, 2023
WHO holds first traditional medicine summit
The global health body has come under fire from online critics who accused it of providing scientific validation to pseudoscience.
Surgeons work to transplant a pig kidney at a hospital in New York in July.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 17, 2023
Surgeons say pig kidney functional in human for over a month
The latest experimental procedure is part of a growing field of research aimed at advancing cross-species transplants.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?