Ni-Vanuatu （バヌアツ人のことをVanuatuanとは呼びません）の友人のおかげでインド太平洋に生息する恙虫の存在を初めて知る機会を得た。
明治になって初めてドイツ人医師のErwin Bälz によって研究に着手。その後北里柴三郎も研究に挑戦した恙虫。その後多くの日本人医師とスタッフが命を牲にしてその解明に努力した。長年、人の命を奪うダニの存在は知られており、東北地方の米生産地からその対策が切願されていたのだ。
その研究が止まってしまったのが第二次世界大戦。日本から見れば大東亜戦争である。恙虫を研究していた医師は軍医として現地に派遣されたが熱帯の虫対策に貢献。他方米軍、豪州軍に恙虫の知識はなく、ニューギニアだけで約９千人が恙虫に刺され、約500人が命を失っている。
恙虫研究で世界でリードしていた日本の研究は、戦後米国の協力要請を受け、恙虫研究はまた一歩大きく前進したのである。医療薬は見つかり、更なるツツガムシノ生態が解明されていった。
太平洋島嶼国を渡り歩いていると虫に悩まされる。怖いのはマラリア蚊くらいしか頭になかったが恙虫がアジア太平洋に広く生息している。Ni-Vanuatuの友人の研究は恙虫研究にまた新たなページを開くことになるのだろう。
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Thanks to a friend Ni-Vanuatu ( people from Vanuatu are not called Vanuatuan), I had the first opportunity to learn about the existence of tsutsugamushi bugs in the IndoPacific.
Only in Meiji period the German medical doctor Erwin Bälz initiated research on the subject. Later, Shibasaburo Kitasato also tried his hand at researching tsutsugamushi. Many Japanese doctors and staff subsequently sacrificed their lives in an effort to elucidate it. For many years, the existence of the deadly flea had been known, and the rice-growing areas of the Tohoku region had long been calling for measures to combat the insect.
This research came to a halt during the Second World War. From Japan's point of view, this was the Greater East Asia War. Doctors who had been studying tsutsugamushi were dispatched to the region as military doctors and contributed to the fight against tropical insects. On the other hand, the US and Australian military had no knowledge of tsutsugamushi, and in New Guinea alone, some 9,000 people were bitten by tsutsugamushi and some 500 people lost their lives.
Japanese research on tsutsugamushi, which had led the world in tsutsugamushi research, took another major step forward after the war when the US had asked to cooperate. Medical drugs were found and further tsutsugamushi ecology was elucidated.
When I travel across the Pacific Island countries, I am plagued by insects. The only thing I was afraid of was the malaria mosquito, but tsutsugamushi bugs are widespread in the Asia-Pacific. The work of my Ni-Vanuatu friend will open a new page in tsutsugamushi research.
