Want to learn more about infectious diseases in an avant-garde way? A Japanese expert on the subject has come up with a solution through a self-made version of karuta, the traditional card game.

Keen to teach the broader public about infectious diseases, Harue Okada, a specially appointed professor on public health with Hakuoh University in Tochigi Prefecture, took three years to complete the game.

"I created the entire karuta game to become a kind of dictionary about infectious diseases," she said.