Kimura, Akio

Dr Akio Kimura works at the Osaka Prefectural Institute of Public Health in Japan. He visited and worked with the Australian Venom Research Unit for 3 weeks in 1997, as part of a collaboration on the emerging problem of redback spiders in Japan. The visit was funded in part by the University of Melbourne's Young Asian Scholars program. Redback spiders were discovered in Osaka in 1995, and are thought to have originated in Australia, possibly in timber or other material shipped to Japan via the port of Osaka. Australian Venom Research Unit research suggests that Australian redback spider antivenom will be effective in the treatment of envenomation by these spiders.