Hiroshima International Council for Health Care of the Radiation-exposed

An international conference, "The 20th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Accident ?Strategies for Restoration and Continuing Development" was held from April 19 to April 21, 2006, under the auspices of the Ministers' Council in Belarus.

Since 1991, as a supporter from Hiroshima, the city of the world's first A-bombing, I have conducted thyroid examinations for radiation-exposed patients in the Ukraine via the Society of Dr. Junod with Dr. Hideo Yamada (a medical interpreter who has a doctor's license authorized by the former Soviet Union.) Since 1991, cooperating with the "Assistance Movement to Chernobyl in Kyushu", a nonprofit organization represented by Dr. Hirokazu Yano in Fukuoka Prefecture, I have examined patients living in the Brest region in Belarus with other Japanese thyroid specialists, using a mobile exam-car provided by the Assistance Movement. My activities include not only detecting thyroid gland cancer, but also the development of medical techniques for doctors conducting ultrasonography for thyroid cancer, aspiration biopsies, and cytological examinations. Once a year, I hold a lecture for doctors all over Belarus (about 100 to 150 participants every year) at the Medical Re-education Center in Minsk, trying to spread more advanced medical techniques throughout Belarus. I also asked Dr. Hoshi, Professor of the Hiroshima University Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, to deliver a lecture regarding the basics of radiation.

At the International Conference, Dr. Yuh Terashima of the “Assistance Movement to Chernobyl in Kyushu?E reported at the "Round Table with NGOs" in an NPO session on its supporting activities. These activities include the dispatch of medical experts, purchase of medical equipment, (ultrasonography equipment was assisted by the Catalogue House Co. Ltd.) and provision of medication. Dr. Hoshi reported on radiation dosimetry for the thyroid gland in the science session, while I reported on the status of thyroid cancer in Chernobyl, adding new information from the last ten years at the "Medical, Social, and Psychological Influence" talk in the science session.

HICARE has invited numerous doctors treating radiation victims to Hiroshima, providing training, as well as supporting my activities. I appreciate the opportunity to attend this conference as made possible by HICARE. Having visited Mr. Takayuki Koike, an Ambassador to Belarus, it may be possible for the Assistance Movement to get more assistance for its activities.

From the outset, our thyroid examinations have been conducted with the cooperation of Belarus Red Cross. At the beginning of the International Conference, a representative of the International Red Cross introduced our activities, announcing that we have saved 50 patients via early detection. Thyroid examinations had been provided to 1,000 patients.