A group of people with HIV urged the government Wednesday to protect the rights of patients diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome.
The group, members of which contracted the AIDS virus in the 1980s from tainted blood products,, said it is concerned that public fears over SARS, which is spreading worldwide but has yet to be confirmed in Japan, will spark discrimination against sufferers.
The hemophiliacs, the next of kin of patients who have died and their supporters made a written request to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on the matter.
They said they have suffered not only HIV/AIDS from the contaminated blood products but also social prejudice and discrimination.
They urged the ministry to ensure that local governments and medical institutions respect the rights of SARS patients and be prepared to accept them or offer advice, according to the request.
They also called for a careful examination of the seriousness and infectious power of the disease now that the ministry has newly designated SARS as an infectious disease for the first time under a law authorizing it to forcibly hospitalize patients.
The victims contracted HIV mainly from the now-defunct Green Cross Corp. blood products and, in a series of cases since 1989, sued the government over its failure to prevent the disaster.
Japan visit postponed
SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) The mayor of Zhuhai in China's Guangdong Province has postponed his visit to Japan due to the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome in the region, officials said Wednesday.
Mayor Wang Shunsheng and his entourage had been slated to arrive in Japan on Monday to participate in a cultural exchange with the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture. They informed Atami on Friday they wanted to postpone the trip, the officials said.
Wang and his group were to visit Atami on Thursday after making a tour of businesses in Tokyo.
The group had planned sightseeing trips, including to Kyoto, before returning home Monday.
Last week, the World Health Organization issued a rare advisory urging travelers to avoid Guangdong and Hong Kong due to the SARS epidemic.
The Japan Times: April 10, 2003
>>>>The victims contracted HIV mainly from the now-defunct Green Cross Corp.
See post 55 for Green Cross Corp's latest business name.
Four drug manufacturers whose blood products were said to have infected thousands of hemophiliacs with the virus that causes AIDS in the early 1980's will pay about $670 million in a settlement approved by a Federal judge.
Six thousand hemophiliacs were each to receive $100,000. In an earlier settlement in Japan, AIDS-infected hemophiliacs were paid $450,000 each. The office of Federal District Judge John Grady confirmed today that he had granted oral formal approval to the settlement on Tuesday. The settlement had won preliminary court approval in April 1996.
The settlement was ''one of the most horrible scenarios that can be imagined,'' said Ron Niederman, a spokesman for the Committee of 10 Thousand, which represents the hemophiliacs. ''In light of the damage they caused, the companies are getting off cheap.''
The companies, which admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to settle, were Bayer A.G. of Germany, the Green Cross Corporation of Japan, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., a French and American company and Baxter International Inc. of Deerfield, Ill.
Guy Esnouf, a Rhone-Poulenc spokesman, said that combined the companies would pay a total of up to about $670 million, of which about $600 million would go to individual hemophiliacs.
To resolve insurance complications and insure that the hemophiliacs will be able to keep their money, the companies will pay $12 million to the Federal Government and $18 million to 25 state governments and private insurers, he said. In addition, the companies face up to $40 million in legal fees, Mr. Esnouf said.
Bayer will shoulder 45 percent of the total cost, Baxter and Rhone-Poulenc 20 percent each and Green Cross 15 percent.
The settlement does not entirely end the decade-old controversy stemming from the infection of 6,000 to 8,000 United States hemophiliacs by contaminated Factor VIII and Factor IX blood clotting agents. About 550 hemophiliacs opted out of the class-action settlement and might pursue litigation against the companies on their own, Mr. Niederman said. He was among those opting out and planned to press his case ''to the bitter end.''
Also, the companies were still in discussions with 25 other states and the Prudential Insurance Company of America over settling remaining insurance matters, Mr. Esnouf said.
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The New York Times
February 25, 1997
Japan Blood Supplier, Facing H.I.V. Penalty, to Be Acquired
By ANDREW POLLACK
The Green Cross Corporation, a troubled Japanese company at the center of a big H.I.V.-tainted blood scandal, will be acquired by another pharmaceutical company, and its name will cease to exist, the companies said today.
The buyer, Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., will exchange six-tenths of a share of its stock for each share of Green Cross in a deal worth 110 billion yen, or about $900 million.
While the two companies said the combination was aimed at giving them the size needed to compete more effectively, some analysts termed it a rescue of Green Cross that might have been engineered by the Japanese Government. Green Cross, based in Osaka, denied Government involvement.
The largest manufacturer of blood products in this country, Green Cross is facing estimated payments of 24 billion yen, or $195 million, as its share of a settlement with hemophiliacs who had become infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, from contaminated blood-clotting products. The companies said today that payments to the hemophiliacs would continue to be made.
About 1,800 hemophiliacs in Japan were infected with H.I.V. and more than 400 have died. In their lawsuits, the hemophiliacs said that the Health and Welfare Ministry had permitted Green Cross and four other drug companies to continue to sell unsterilized blood-clotting products well after heat-treating technology that kills viruses had become available.
Hospitals have been boycotting Green Cross products. And three former company presidents await trial on criminal charges of professional negligence resulting in death.
Yoshitomi, also based in Osaka, is a midsize drug company specializing in tranquilizers. It had sales last year of 101.6 billion yen, or $828 million. Roughly one-fifth of Yoshitomi is owned by Takeda Chemical Industries, a leading Japan drug concern.
Green Cross was started as a private blood bank in 1950. One of its founders, Ryoichi Naito, had been an officer in the notorious Unit 731 of the Imperial Army, which conducted germ-warfare experiments on civilians and prisoners in China during World War II.
Green Cross's American subsidiary, the Alpha Therapeutic Corporation, is one of four companies that recently agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by 600 H.I.V.-infected hemophiliacs in the United States.
Green Cross has long employed many retiring health ministry officials. Hemophiliacs contended that the ministry delayed approval of heat-treated blood products to allow Green Cross time to catch up to foreign rivals.