Koizumi lays wreath on Dr Noguchi's tomb

Accra, May 2 GNA - Mr Junichiro Koizumi, the visiting Japanese Prime Minister, on Tuesday laid a wreath on the tomb of the Dr Hideyo Noguchi at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. Dr Noguchi, a Japanese bacteriologist and pathologist, died of yellow fever, a disease on which he was conducting medical research in Accra in 1928.
The Japanese Premier had earlier inspected the Dr Noguchi's private laboratory, which now serves as Health Laboratory Services Headquarters, School of Medical Laboratory Technology.
Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), Minister of Health and Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, Chief Administrator of the Hospital, conducted him round.
The Dr Noguchi was born in 1878 and studied at the Kitazatos Institute, Japan and Pennsylvania University, United States. He worked at Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in the US investigating yellow fever.
He arrived in Ghana in 1927 to conduct research into the disease and died a year later from that very disease.
Mr Koizumi, who is on a three-day visit to the country, is scheduled to attend a Ghana-Japan summit meeting at the Castle, Osu, in the afternoon.