Professor Ichikawa Masao, a project collaborating faculty member of NipCA Project, attended the Joint Congress of Global Health 2024 held in Itoman, Okinawa from Saturday, November 16th to Sunday, 17th.
The congress was held as a joint conference of three academic societies related to global health: Japanese Society of Tropical Medicine, Japan Association for Global Health, and Taiwan Association for Global Health Initiative. Over 500 researchers, practitioners, and students from both Japan and abroad participated in the event.
Professor Ichikawa organized and conducted a workshop at the congress to raise awareness across various sectors about the challenges of injury prevention and emergency medical care in low- and middle-income countries, which have been highlighted as important issues in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and recent World Health Assembly discussions.
Every year, 4.3 million people lose their lives worldwide due to injuries, accounting for 6% of all deaths. The victims of injuries are predominantly children and young people, with three out of the top five causes of death among those aged 15 to 29 being injury-related (self-harm, violence, traffic accidents, and other unintentional injuries). In addition, injuries often lead to disabilities, with 6% of the years lived with disability (YLDs) and 9% of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) globally being caused by injuries. Injuries are a health issue, and like diseases, they are preventable. However, in reality, there is a lack of awareness about this. During the workshop, Professor Ichikawa raised the issue and invited researchers and practitioners with experience in injury prevention in low- and middle-income countries to present their real-life examples, engaging participants in a wide-ranging discussion.
