Professor Yasuhiko Kamiya

Speciality / Research theme / Keywords

Child Health

Supervision

Masters ProgrammeDoctoral Programme

Qualifications

M.D., M.Trop.Paed., PhD

Research gate or Linked-in account links

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yasuhiko_Kamiya

Affiliation(s)

• Graduate School of Tropical Medicine & Global Health, Nagasaki University, Japan
• Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Background

After acquiring MD. from Kochi Medical School in 1985, I worked for children with disability. I acquired Masters in Tropical Paediatrics from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 1995, with the dissertation “ Pneumocystis Pneumonia in HIV infected children in Malawi”, and Ph.D. from Faculty of Medicine, University of Liverpool in 2002 with the thesis “Epidemiology and microbiology of acute respiratory infections in children in an urban poor area in Nairobi, Kenya and molecular epidemiology of RS virus”. I joined vaccine trials for pertussis and measles in Ghana. I worked for humanitarian assistance in the former Yugoslavia, the former Zaire, Iraq, Afghanistan, Honduras and South Sudan with AMDA, Peace Wind Japan, UNHCR, and UNICEF. I have consulted and coordinated on community health, health system strengthening, epidemiology on infectious diseases and NCD in Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ghana, Fiji and Philippines and for local capacity development for health system research and epidemiology.

Teaching

I will be teaching Global Health I, Child Health I, Child Health II, Community Health I, and Emergency Assistance I at the TMGH, and also supervising Long Term Internship for MPH course. Currently I am teaching child health and pediatric diseases in MTM and TTM courses, and current epidemiological transition and health system research at the phD Leading program. Previously I taught Overview of Global Health, Child Health, and Emergency Assistance at the Graduate School of International Health Development, along with supervision for long term internship for MPH students.

Research

I have been studying aid effectiveness, particularly on aid fragmentation and its effect on health system. I participated in randomized control trials for several vaccines in Ghana, and did clinical and microbiological (molecular biological) study on RS virus and pneumocystis pneumonia in Malawi, cohort study for ARI in children in Kenya and NCD especially cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in Sri Lanka as well as research on referral system in Ghana, and supervision and health information system in Kenya along with overuse of antibiotics, disease replacement under polymicrobial status. I am also engaged in study on access and seeking behavior in children with disability in the Philippines.

The country/countries where you work currently

• Japan
• Ghana
• Kenya
• Honduras
• Philippines
• Sri Lanka
• South Sudan
• India

Five MOST IMPORTANT/INTERESTING recent publications

1. Kamiya Y. Current situation of children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries. Pediatrics International. 2021; 63(11):1277-1281.
2. Theingi P, Kamiya Y, Myat Moe M, Cho San C, Cox SE. Depression and its associated factors among people with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Myanmar. Tropical Medicine & International Health. 2021; 26(9):1117-1126.
3. Mananggit MR, Manalo DL, Saito N, Kimitsuki K, Garcia AMG, Lacanilao PMT, Ongtangco JT, Velasco CR, del Rosario MVA, Lagayan MGO, Yamada K, Park CH, Inoue S, Suzuki M, Saito- Obata M, Kamiya Y, Demetria CS, Quiambao BP, Nishizono A. Lateral flow devices for samples collected by straw sampling method for post-mortem canine rabies diagnosis. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 2021; 15(12): e0009891.
4. Saito A, Karama M, Kamiya Y. HIV infection, and overweight and hypertension: a cross-sectional study of HIV-infected adults in Western Kenya. Tropical Medicine and Health. 2020; 48:31.
5. Hitachi M, Honda S, Kaneko S, Kamiya Y. Correlates of exclusive breastfeeding practices in rural and urban Niger: a community-based cross-sectional study. International Breastfeeding Journal. 2019;14:32.

Message

In development assistance, you must clearly position yourself as to how you support and how much you intervene, while in humanitarian emergency aid, you must make difficult decisions promptly. The more you are involved, the more you realize the hollowness or limits of some approaches to international cooperation, the gap between ideals and reality, and the importance of learning from people in the field. To develop your capability along with those in the field, not necessarily solely for your career development, it is important to learn and un-learn some of what you have studied.

What is taught and learned in the classroom differs from what actually happens and is implemented. Sharing our failures and reflections in the field would be for beneficiaries, not for our carriers. This course offers the chance where we can continue our self-development together, with multifaceted perspectives and a critical regard for ourselves, while being aware of the privilege of mutually teaching and learning.