Infectious Disease Prevention Technology

All humans are at risk for influenza, an infectious disease that once developed can cause severe harm. Even recently, the number of annually affected individuals has not shown a decrease. For preventing this common disease, Kao has been developing a new protection technique as part of efforts for offering new simple and easily implemented daily life habits, in addition to conventional strategies such as vaccination and hand washing. New findings were obtained in fundamental studies of infection phenomena, especially the transmission of pathogens in daily life, as well as biological reactions and defensive functions in humans, and a specific technique developed for both customers and general society is proposed.
Findings obtained in the fields of microbiological control, colloid surface science, and biological science, strong points thus far, will be utilized. In addition, fundamental studies of virus infection obtained the following important findings.

1. Individuals who are resistant to colds and influenza tended to have a high level of salivary secretion at rest.
2. The potential to inhibit influenza virus activity varied depending on the individual (Fig. 1). Furthermore, the level of protein-binding sialic acid in saliva had the highest correlation with anti-influenza virus activity in saliva.