For a long period Japan was a country with a variety of parasites linked to the geo-climatic features of the country and agricultural modes. However national endeavors to promote parasite controls resulted in the successful elimination of those parasites by around 1970. In this short article, I briefly overview the control programs of soil-transmitted parasites, lymphatic filaria, Schistosoma japonicum and malaria, and cite some of the characteristic features and remarkable facts revealed in the course of individual control programs.

Nineteen stocks of Trypanosoma cruzi originating from several endemic countries for Chagas‘ disease in Central and South America were subjected to two-dimensional protein electrophoresis analysis. The presence or absence of a total of492polypeptide spots among19gel profiles was determined. The stocks were classified into three major distinctive groups derived from (I) Central America and the northern part of South America; (IIa) Central America and the northern part of South America; and (IIb) central and southern parts of South America, which showed perfect concordance with the previously reported classification based on isozyme and DNA sequence analyses. Late log phase of each epimastigote was inoculated to human cell lines WI-38and Hs224.T originating from the lung and muscle, respectively, and the number of trypomastigotes released was counted. The number of trypomastigotes from T. cruzi in group I released from the two cell lines was significantly higher than that in group III (p&It;0.05). The findings suggested that the phenetic distance appearing within the T. cruzi may, to some extent, be associated with the intracellular growth of T. cruzi, one of the characteristic features of growth found in the species.

We examined the clinical effect of a functional food containing both soy isoflavone and black cohosh extract (test food) on Simplified Menopausal Index (SMI) in a double blind study. Twenty four peri-menopausal women were divided into two groups and four capsules of either the test food or placebo were ingested everyday for eight weeks. The daily intakes of soy isoflavone and black cohosh extract were 50.0 mg and 80.0 mg respectively. As compared with placebo group, the scores of menopausal symptoms such as “stiff neck” and “backache” significantly improved (p<0.05), and the score of “irritation” tended to improve in test food group but not significant statistically. When these results were stratified according to the severity of pretrial menopausal symptoms, the effects of test food were shown to be more effective in mild case group. These results suggest that the functional food containing soy isoflavone and black cohosh extract alleviate menopausal disturbances and improve the quality of life for peri-menopausal women.

Between 1987 and 1990, Tsuchiura Kyodo Hospital treated a total of 153 cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix after establishing definitive diagnosis. Of the total, 46 cases in stage 0, 43 cases in stage Ia and 21 cases in stage Ib were studied retrospectively in order to investigate the sensitivity of cytological and histological tests and the rate of agreement between cancer diagnoses made by the two departments. As a result, it was confirmed anew that there is much to be done to improve the diagnostic accuracy, which is vital to the success of the treatment for early cancer of the uterine cervix.
A summary of the findings is as follows:
The cytological examination data showed that the positive results were obtained in 69.6% of the cases in stage 0, 67.4% in stage Ia and 84.2% in stage Ib. The corresponding percentages in the histological examination were 50%, 67.5% and 89.5% respectively. The argreement rations were as low as 30% in stage 0, 53.8% in stage Ia and 84.2% in stage Ib.
Similar study was made on 43 cases of conization which is regarded as a useful means of detecting cervic cancer, The ratio of detection of early cervic cancer was 29.4% before conization. After conization, the ratio jumped to 74.4%.
The present level of diagnostic accuracy is such that the routine conization procedure is indispensable. For the treatment of cervical cancer in stage 0, it is advisable to perform hysterectomy. For the stage Ia cancer, semi-radical hysterectomy should be indicated. Lymph-node clearing is not always required.
In stage 0, diagnostic conization should be followed by treatmental conization or by removal of the remaing part of the uterus after making sure that the conization procedure was appropriate and taking into consideration the patients' age and fertility. In light of the present level of medical technology, however, hysterectomy may be the first to be considered.