Hope for hepatitis C settlement
(From The Japan Times Nov. 9 issue)

薬害C型肝炎をめぐる和解勧告

The Osaka High Court has recommended that the parties involved in a lawsuit over hepatitis C virus infections caused by the use of tainted blood products compromise and reach a settlement. It is hoped that the state and drug makers will be ready to take responsibility for the medical disaster and apologize to the plaintiffs so that a court-mediated settlement can be reached. The settlement would serve as a first step toward solving health problems that affect more than 10,000 people.

In and after 2002, 171 people infected with hepatitis C virus through the use of tainted blood products, mainly the hemostatic agent fibrinogen, filed lawsuits for compensation with lower courts in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Sendai and Nagoya. By September 2007, four of the five courts ruled that the state and drug makers bear responsibility for the health damage. Only the Sendai court decided that the drug makers alone have responsibility.

In 1977, the United States withdrew approval of fibrinogen. Yet, use of nonheated fibrinogen was found to have led to mass hepatitis infections in Aomori Prefecture in 1987. The next year, heated fibrinogen caused a series of infections. Although the health ministry in 2004 made public the names of about 7,000 medical institutions that had purchased fibrinogen, it did not bother to find out how many people were infected with hepatitis C virus.

In October, documents with the names or initials of 118 people who had developed hepatitis C from tainted fibrinogen were found in the health ministry, thus disproving the ministry's earlier claim that it didn't have such data.

In the past, the ministry, the drug makers and the medical institutions have failed to move positively to treat people infected with the virus. It is encouraging that Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe is positive about reaching a settlement, reversing the ministry's earlier stand. It is hoped that the government will make great efforts not only to strike a compromise acceptable to the plaintiffs but also work out comprehensive measure to help victims nationwide as soon as possible.

汚染された血液製剤でC型肝炎に感染した患者が国や製薬会社を訴えた控訴審で、大阪高裁は国と原告、被告企業に和解を勧告した。和解ができれば、全国で1万人以上の薬害C型肝炎患者の救済の第1歩となる。

1977年、米国は血液製剤フィブリノゲンの製造承認を取り消したが、日本では、1987年、1988年にも加熱型、非加熱型のフィブリノゲンの使用でC型肝炎の感染が判明した。

昨年10月には、フィブリノゲンの使用でC型肝炎に感染した118名の患者名またはイニシャルを記載した資料が厚労省で発見された。

政府は原告に受け入れられる決着を図るばかりでなく、全国の患者を早期に救済する総合的措置を講じるよう望まれる。