Asahi Shimbun Co., Ltd. received the “Zero Malaria Special Award”

Malaria No More Japan (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director: Takahiro Kamiya) will award the 11th Zero Malaria Award to Sysmex Corporation (Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, President and Representative Director Kaoru Asano) on April 25th, World Malaria Day.

The “multi-item automatic blood cell analyzer XN-31''* developed by the company is capable of measuring and quantitatively displaying red blood cells infected with malaria parasites, etc. The measurement is performed fully automatically and does not require advanced skills. It enables high-sensitivity testing in a short time of approximately 1 minute. XN-31 was the first in Japan to receive pharmaceutical approval as a class III medical device that falls under the category of malaria diagnostic device (June 2020), and the following year it was approved as a standard test method for malaria outbreak notification under the Infectious Diseases Act. The award was given in recognition of the positive impact it has had on the medical field as a diagnostic technology that leads to appropriate treatment and good prognosis for malaria patients.

Upon receiving the award, the company said, “Malaria is a disease that can reduce the number of deaths through early diagnosis and early treatment, but collaboration and cooperation are essential for countermeasures. We will continue to build partnerships and promote efforts to disseminate XN-31 and strengthen local health systems."

In addition, the Zero Malaria Special Award will be presented to Asahi Shimbun Co., Ltd. (Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Executive Officer and Editor, Kengo Sakajiri) in recognition of its multifaceted reporting and dissemination toward the eradication of malaria. In February 2023, the company launched "with Planet," a new site that reports on global health and development issues in developing countries, and reports on and disseminates efforts to combat the three major infectious diseases. In particular, with regard to malaria, in order to raise the interest of many people towards its control, we worked on multifaceted reporting, domestic and international, digital and print, text and non-text. In recognition of its multifaceted coverage and reporting, we have decided to award this special award.　

The 11th Zero Malaria Award and Zero Malaria Special Award ceremony will be held on May 8th at a venue in Tokyo as follows.

Malaria No More Japan, Japan's only civil society organization specializing in malaria, hopes that through the Zero Malaria Prize, more people will become interested in malaria and infectious diseases and will be inspired to take action.

What is the Zero Malaria Award?

The award is given to individuals and organizations in all fields who are working on activities that contribute to the international community's goal of "achieving zero malaria by 2030." Since its inception in 2014, the program has evaluated and awarded contributions to zero malaria from a variety of perspectives, including support projects, research activities, and information dissemination efforts. For information on past awards, please refer to the attached document or visit our organization's website.　

https://malarianomore.jp/archives/category/award　

*XN-31 is not available in the US or Canada. Not all products are available in all markets. For information, contact your Sysmex Sales Representative.

"We are extremely honored to receive such an honorable award. Sysmex is leveraging the technology it has cultivated in testing and diagnostic fields such as hematology to develop products tailored to local medical issues and develop local medical personnel. This award recognizes these efforts and the unique and innovative technology of XN-31, which provides test results that are useful for malaria diagnosis quickly, easily, and with high accuracy. We believe that this has been highly evaluated.

Malaria is a disease that can reduce the number of deaths through early diagnosis and early treatment, but collaboration and cooperation are essential for countermeasures. We take this award as a sign of our expectations for further contributions towards achieving 'zero malaria', and we will continue to build partnerships and promote initiatives to disseminate XN-31 and strengthen local health systems. Masu. Going forward, Sysmex will continue to focus on creating value for a healthy society by solving global health issues and contributing to achieving UHC.”