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MATSUE--A 5-year-old girl fell unconscious from acute alcohol poisoning after she licked sanitizer sprayed on her hands to prevent novel coronavirus infections at a nursery school, officials said.

The girl has since recovered and been discharged from a hospital, but her case caused quite a scare and prompted precautions in using alcohol-based sanitizers among children.

The incident occurred on the afternoon of March 28, according to the Unnan city government in Shimane Prefecture.

The girl, who was at the nursery school at the time, said she felt dizzy and could not stand up. Her parents were contacted, and they took her to a hospital in the city.

Although she was treated with an intravenous drip and other methods, she became unresponsive at the hospital.

She was taken to Shimane Prefectural Central Hospital in Izumo, and arrived there unconscious, officials said.

Doctors were unable to find anything abnormal in her tests, including a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, that could explain her condition.

She regained consciousness at 9:30 p.m. that day. She said she had licked alcohol-based sanitizer on her hand during nap time at the nursery.

Doctors then found her blood-alcohol concentration level was quite high, at 120 milligrams per 1 deciliter. She was diagnosed as suffering from acute alcohol poisoning.

Tomohiro Hirade, a pediatrician at the hospital who saw the girl, said although the amount of alcohol that causes acute alcohol poisoning depends on a person’s weight, the girl could have consumed between 30 and 50 milliliters of alcohol because she said she had licked the sanitizer around 10 times.

The girl also said she had sniffed or licked the sanitizer before.

“Children might put hand sanitizer in their mouths because they may be curious about its smell or taste,” Hirade said. “It is necessary to disseminate the information that even a small amount of hand sanitizer could make children suffer from alcohol poisoning.”

Acute alcohol poisoning can damage the liver, lower blood-sugar levels and even lead to death.

The nursery school had allowed children aged 4 or 5 to freely use the hand-sanitizer dispenser after they learned how to operate it.

The day after the incident, the Unnan city government instructed all nursey schools in the city to keep alcohol-based hand sanitizer out of the reach of children and allow them to use it only under the supervision of staff members.

The Japan Poison Information Center in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, says it received between 49 and 56 reports a month of poisoning from ethanol-based disinfectant from February to April 2020, when the novel coronavirus was spreading.

The figures were roughly twice those for the period through January 2020.

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Girl loses consciousness after licking hand sanitizer | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

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MATSUE--A 5-year-old girl fell unconscious from acute alcohol poisoning after she licked sanitizer sprayed on her hands to prevent novel coronavirus infections at a nursery school, officials said.

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KYOTO--A new study is casting doubts on the notion that drinking coffee might lead to worse eye health.

Researchers at Kyoto University performed an eye-health analysis of about 9,000 people, and the results suggest there is no need to refrain from enjoying a cup of joe out of fear of glaucoma or other eye disorders.

They found that habitual coffee drinkers, in fact, tend to have lower eye pressure than non-drinkers, although the reason has yet to be determined.

But experts do not recommend consuming coffee for the purpose of prevention or medical treatment.

"We will continue with our research, as the rate of glaucoma development and other data will be revealed through follow-up studies," said Masahiro Miyake, a special assistant professor of ophthalmology at the university.

The research started after a patient asked an eye doctor whether coffee is bad for the eyes, but the doctor could not find a clear answer.

It inspired scientists to examine the relationship between coffee intake and intraocular pressure, which is an indicator of eyeball hardness. Lower pressure suggests better health prospects, whereas abnormally high pressure is one of the causes of glaucoma.

The researchers asked 9,418 people, who were sampled because they are not glaucoma patients that are using eye lotion to reduce intraocular pressure, how often they drink coffee. The data was combined with their intraocular pressure levels measured at a health screening.

The study participants were not classified based on what kind of coffee they consume, such as regular, instant or canned.

The findings showed those who drink coffee three or more times a day have lower eye pressure than people who drink the beverage less than once a day. The difference in their eye pressure was comparable to about 3 percent of average intraocular pressure.

The more frequently a person ingested coffee, the lower their intraocular pressure.

But the study comes with big caveats.

The jury is still out on whether drinking coffee will reduce intraocular pressure. On top of that, even people with healthy levels of eye pressure can still develop glaucoma.

The scientists said patients should therefore not rely on a coffee break to prevent or cure eye problems.

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Study suggests drinking coffee may not be bad for eye health | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

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KYOTO--A new study is casting doubts on the notion that drinking coffee might lead to worse eye health. Researchers at Kyoto University performed an eye-health analysis of about 9,000 people, and the results suggest there is no need to refrain from enjoying a cup of joe out of fear of glaucoma or other eye disorders.

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Japan's largest academic medical association is working with other health care providers, welfare institute staff and educators to find ways to keep those 80 and older healthy and independent.

"With society continuing to gray, various age-related problems can result in the onset of diseases," said Morito Monden, chairman of the Japanese Medical Science Federation, at a news conference on April 1.

The federation released a statement about its 80 Go campaign, designed to extend healthy life expectancy through preventing age-related frailty and locomotive syndrome among the elderly.

Citing the research outcomes from entities such as the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, the statement said those who are 80 should be able to walk 11 meters within 10 seconds, or at a speed of 4 kph.

Those who cannot will likely need nursing care in 10 years.

The 80 Go drive was proposed to help those in their 80s remain active.

Frailty is the condition of having lowered physical and psychological abilities stemming from a reduced resistance to illness. Locomotive syndrome is lessened mobility linked to joints and other organs being impaired.

Such conditions, combined with the progression of other disorders, can cause a host of problems for the elderly. Those with frailty and locomotive syndrome are said to be four times more likely to require nursing care.

"We will tackle frailty and locomotive syndrome by working with those from different fields," Monden said.

The issues can be bypassed or alleviated with healthier dietary habits and exercise, according to the statement.

The federation added that sports and healthy eating during people's younger years are crucial for overcoming frailty and locomotive syndrome later on.

The statement was put out under the names of 57 academic societies that are part of the federation, as well as 23 non-member groups in academia and elsewhere.

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80 Go campaign suggests ways elderly can stay active, healthy | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

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Japan's largest academic medical association is working with other health care providers, welfare institute staff and educators to find ways to keep those 80 and older healthy and independent. "With society continuing to gray, various age-related problems can result in the onset of diseases," said Morito Monden, chairman of the Japanese Medical Science Federation, at a news conference on April 1.

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NAHA--It is hard to imagine the horrors that Nobu Madanbashi faced as she toiled in a rough-hewn dugout treating injured Japanese soldiers during the ferocious Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

In the words of her adopted daughter, Kanako, "It must be beyond imagination."

For the rest of her life, Madanbashi, who died in 2004 aged 85, devoted herself to the development of nursing care.

For her efforts, she was named in 1985 as the recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal awarded by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Madanbashi often found herself compared with Nightingale, a heroine of Victorian England who transformed nursing care for soldiers injured in the Crimean War of 1853 to 1856. Nightingale, who died in London in 1910, earned the monicker "The Lady with the Lamp" because she would visit the wounded men at night with a small lantern in her hand.

As memories of the war and the Battle of Okinawa fade, kin of the nurse have gone to great pains to make some sense of the fierce ground battle and pass down Madanbashi's legacy to future generations.
HEAD NURSE AT ARMY HOSPITAL
On June 11, two relatives clasped their hands in prayer in front of a cave where the Imperial Japanese Army's No. 2 Surgery unit was located.

Yukako Matsuoka, 46, a granddaughter of Madanbashi's younger sister, and Yukako's younger sister Kanako Madanbashi, 44, said they tried to imagine what it must have been like with lights flickering amid all the shelling and screaming of wounded men.

Kanako is also Madanbashi's adopted daughter.

The cave site is about 1.7 kilometers northwest of Himeyuri no To (Himeyuri Monument) in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, which commemorates a unit of female students mobilized by the Japanese army to provide nursing care to wounded soldiers and bury the dead. They were known as Himeyuri Gakutotai, or Star Lily Corps.

They suffered terrible losses as U.S. forces started gaining the upper hand, forcing the Japanese army to retreat.

It was there that Madanbashi worked as a nurse 74 years ago. It is said that she served as head nurse at an army hospital and nursed soldiers with limited medical equipment.

After she retreated to the cave, she was caught on June 21, 1945, two days before organized fighting by the Japanese Imperial Army ended.

Madanbashi worked at a medical facility in a prison camp immediately after the war and also at an orphanage. She went on to become head nurse at a hospital in Naha and later served as an instructor at a nursing school.

In accepting the Florence Nightingale Medal, she said it was on behalf of the Himeyuri students and nurses working in Okinawa Prefecture.

Yukako and Kanako had lived with Madanbashi as children. They always remember her as their "grandmother."

Yukako described her as "always cheerful" and Kanako recalled that she "rubbed my feet until I fell asleep."
WHAT WAS THE BATTLE LIKE?
The sisters decided four years ago to dig into Madanbashi's life. Yukako was watching the Okinawa Memorial Day Ceremony on TV on June 23 that year with her family when her eldest son, who was then at elementary school, asked her: "What was the Battle of Okinawa like?"

She found herself stumped for an answer.

The sisters started combing through all sorts of materials to gain a better understanding of Madanbashi's life.

They deepened their knowledge of the Battle of Okinawa as well as Madanbashi's feelings toward nursing care.

Madanbashi wanted "to serve her country" and felt she could best do that by devoting herself to nursing care after the war.

The sisters concluded that Madanbashi had an unwavering commitment to help those in need based on her selfless consideration and compassion for others.

In 2017, the sisters founded the Madanbashi Nobu Institute in the prefectural capital, which has the express purpose of studying the Battle of Okinawa and the history of nursing through Madanbashi's life and achievements. In May this year, they set up a website (https://mothernurse.jp/) to explain her life and introduce sites related to the Battle of Okinawa.

In addition to preparing a picture book, they also plan to set up a scholarship program to nurture nursing talent in the future.

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Quest to keep memories alive of Okinawa's 'Nurse Nightingale' | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

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NAHA--It is hard to imagine the horrors that Nobu Madanbashi faced as she toiled in a rough-hewn dugout treating injured Japanese soldiers during the ferocious Battle of Okinawa in 1945. In the words of her adopted daughter, Kanako, "It must be beyond imagination."

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Yumiko Nobue's childhood dream was to work as a veterinarian in Africa treating exotic animals.

But Nobue's life took a different course after she worked as a volunteer in India under Mother Teresa, a missionary who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was feted across the world as "the saint of the Calcutta slums," during her spring vacation before moving on to graduate school.

Nobue eventually embarked on a career as a nurse.

Now aged 58, she has been working in India as the only Japanese member of the Medical Mission Sisters (MMS), a monastic order of about 450 Catholic women providing humanitarian aid around the world.

She attended a girls' school in Tokyo, but feeling she was missing something in her life went on to study in the United States.

But even then, she still held back and was unable to build a close relationship with her host family.

A Christian host family that took her in next patiently talked to her until Nobue began to open up about her true feelings.

Nobue was baptized after she returned to Japan.

The MMS was founded in 1925 by Austrian native Anna Dengel to provide poor people with better access to health care. Dengel raised donations in the United States after seeing women dying because they couldn't receive proper medical care from male doctors for religious reasons in what was then northern India, present-day Pakistan.

Members of the MMS live with local communities and share their everyday lives in the hope of building a better world where all living creatures can enjoy a richer life.

Nobue usually rides a bicycle to get around and takes a small camera with her. She has snapped photos of children's smiling faces, landscapes and other aspects of life that catch her eye.

She published a photo book titled "Weaving of Spirit: A Journey into North East India" late last year.

Her intention was to remind Japanese that the region is where the disastrous Battle of Imphal was waged between Japanese troops and British forces during World War II.

It distresses her that conflict remains a constant in the world when each region has its own rich culture.

She chose a recent photo of herself riding a bicycle with a smile on her face for the book, hoping that the peaceful day on which the image was taken would prevail across the world.

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Africa beckoned, but nurse devoted her life to the poor in India | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

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Yumiko Nobue's childhood dream was to work as a veterinarian in Africa treating exotic animals. But Nobue's life took a different course after she worked as a volunteer in India under Mother Teresa, a missionary who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was feted across the world as "the saint of the Calcutta slums," during her spring vacation before moving on to graduate school.

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UTSUNOMIYA--High school students in Tochigi Prefecture once again were more willing to part with their blood to help others than those anywhere else in Japan, in fiscal 2020.

The prefecture's high schoolers scored Japan's highest blood donation rate for the fifth year in a row, prefectural officials announced.

While the national average for donations by high school students was 3.41 percent, in Tochigi it hit 15.02 percent, a record high for the past decade, according to Tochigi officials.

A total of 7,623 Tochigi high schoolers donated blood in fiscal 2020, which ended in March this year, also a record high in the past 10 years since fiscal 2011, the officials said.

The prefecture ranked first by a large margin, followed by Yamanashi Prefecture, where 9.30 percent of high school students gave blood.

Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, though fewer schools had blood donation sessions in fiscal 2020 than usual, about 80 percent of all schools in Tochigi Prefecture conducted blood drives.

Some students who had no chance to donate blood at their schools went the extra mile and said they did so at blood donation rooms elsewhere.

Tochigi officials attributed the high level of commitment to giving blood to the fact that students are aware of the importance of doing so despite the pandemic, prompted by the ubiquitous presence of blood donation sessions held at many high schools and colleges in the prefecture.

In fiscal 2015, the prefecture ceded the top spot for blood donations by high school students to Yamanashi Prefecture when 11.03 percent of the students in Tochigi gave blood compared to 11.06 percent in Yamanashi, but it has ranked first since fiscal 2016.

The underlying cause is the fact that many blood donor drives are conducted at schools in the prefecture.

More than 90 percent of high schools have provided venues for blood donation every year.

The blood donation rate has also been pushed up because it is calculated from the number of students who donated blood in schools and other places outside their schools, the officials said.

The Japanese Red Cross blood center for the prefecture sends blood collection buses to schools, accompanied by doctors and nurses. Students who are 16 or older and have gained consent from their parents or guardians can donate blood.

It remains unclear why blood donations are widely performed at schools in the prefecture. But the practice has been carried out at least since the parents and guardians of current students, and school staff, were in high school themselves.

Tochigi residents for that reason share a widespread sense that it's only natural to donate blood at schools and parents and guardians of students approve of the drives.

Donating blood together with their peers at schools has its advantages because it makes youngsters feel less hesitant about donating blood even if it is their first time. Many students donate blood on a regular basis after their first experience.

That enthusiasm was evident in the numerous positive messages about giving blood that students scrawled in notebooks set aside for their comments at a blood donation room located on Utsunomiya's Odori main street.

A message one student left said it felt good to do something for others even if it was only a small thing.

Another student said they were nervous about donating blood for the first time, but it wasn't too painful and they found the actual session didn't stress them out.

An 18-year-old college student in the prefecture, who is a member of a student group set up to promote blood drives, said she loves to do good things for others and helps manage blood donation venues. She had also donated blood when she was a high school student.

"You know how blood donations work when you experience it in school, making you feel up to doing more," she said.

The prefectural government's health and welfare department is asking the public to donate blood again this year.

"Going out to donate blood is not considered a nonessential outing because the need for blood donations remains unchanged amid the coronavirus pandemic," said an official at the department. "Even if you receive a coronavirus vaccine, you can donate blood 48 hours afterward."

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High schoolers in Tochigi boast highest blood donation rate | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

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UTSUNOMIYA--High school students in Tochigi Prefecture once again were more willing to part with their blood to help others than those anywhere else in Japan, in fiscal 2020.

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Empress Masako attended the Japanese Red Cross Society's national convention in Tokyo on May 19 for the first time in three years.

This was the empress's first solo official duty outside of the Imperial Palace since the 47th Florence Nightingale Medal awards ceremony in August 2019.

The annual convention of the Japanese Red Cross Society had been canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The empress, who serves as its honorary president, gave medals of merit to 10 individuals and representatives of three organizations for their continuous support and volunteer activities for the JRC.

She also listened to a report from the director of the Japanese Red Cross Musashino Hospital with Crown Princess Kiko and other participants. The hospital has accepted many patients infected with the novel coronavirus.

"I am certain you have gone through many difficulties," Masako told the director of the hospital after the convention.

This is the second time the empress has attended the convention since taking over as the honorary president from Empress Emerita Michiko.

Including Kiko, three princesses who are honorary vice presidents of the society also attended the assembly held at the Meiji Jingu Kaikan in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.

The annual convention brings JRC members from all over the country and representatives of its volunteers together. The event was scaled back, however, to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, with about 600 people participating.

The emperor and empress took a video tour of the JRC Medical Center in November 2020 in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward and Red Cross hospitals in Hokkaido, Fukushima and Okinawa prefectures. They expressed their gratitude to the doctors and nurses working at the sites.

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Empress attends convention for Japanese Red Cross Society | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

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Empress Masako attended the Japanese Red Cross Society's national convention in Tokyo on May 19 for the first time in three years. This was the empress's first solo official duty outside of the Imperial Palace since the 47th Florence Nightingale Medal awards ceremony in August 2019.

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Tokyo officials opened a makeshift hospital for elderly patients with COVID-19 on Feb. 21, targeting those who contracted the virus at senior facilities.

The opening comes as infected seniors find it increasingly difficult in the capital to receive treatment at regular hospitals amid a spike in cases among older adults.

The emergency facility is set up in a former medical center of Tokyo Women’s Medical University in Arakawa Ward.

It is aimed at patients with mild and moderate symptoms after they become infected with the coronavirus in outbreaks at facilities for the elderly.

It will also treat emergency cases and admit patients who are recovering from the disease after they were first treated at other hospitals.

Reporters were allowed to have a preview of the facility on Feb. 20 when Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike inspected the site.

“Senior patients’ hospitalizations tend to last longer,” Koike said, referring to the trend of many elderly patients developing serious symptoms. “We need to prepare more beds to grapple with the rise in patients in serious condition.”

The facility, staffed with two doctors, 22 nurses and two physical therapists, is expected to operate with 50 beds at first. It will add up to 100 more beds, depending on the spread of infections in Tokyo.

It is one of the emergency facilities that the Tokyo metropolitan government is working to open to treat a total of 660 patients who are at heightened risk of a serious health condition, such as elderly people and pregnant women.

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Stopgap hospital for older COVID-19 patients opens in Tokyo | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

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Tokyo officials opened a makeshift hospital for elderly patients with COVID-19 on Feb. 21, targeting those who contracted the virus at senior facilities.