A system for Physiology Educator Accreditation was established by the Physiological Society of Japan in 2013 and then implemented. The accreditation process starts by the applicant participating in the education program during the society’s annual meeting, after which the applicant’s teaching and research experiences are reviewed. The education program consists of model lectures to learn teaching skills and lectures to obtain up-to-date knowledge about physiology. The main purpose of the system is to provide an opportunity to obtain a wide range of knowledge and skills for physiology teaching for teachers working at medical universities and universities of life sciences and for young researchers aiming for a tenure-track academic position.

We recently encountered a case of fatal pneumococcal infection in a previously healthy 19-year-old female. She had no history of splenectomy, but on autopsy she was found to have hyposplenism. It has been widely reported that life-threatening pneumococcal infection can occur after splenectomy, though cases of hyposplenic or asplenic adults, without a history of splenectomy, are very rare. We report this case and review the literature dealing with 6 similar cases.