JAPAN: Blood Donors' IDs to Be Checked

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

JAPAN: Blood Donors' IDs to Be Checked

Daily Yomiuri (12.31.03) - Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Following the announcement Monday that a person in Japan had been infected with HIV through a blood transfusion, the Japanese Red Cross has decided to require that donors provide ID including a driver's license or passport before donating their blood. For those who do not possess any identifying documents, such as some homemakers and elderly people, the system would confirm their identity through other means. The ID system will be implemented on an experimental basis in Tokyo by the summer and nationwide by the end of fiscal 2005, sources said.

The Japanese Red Cross has been asking people not to donate blood if it learns in pre-donation interviews that they have had unprotected sex with many people or engaged in other risky acts. However, in a number of reported cases donated blood tested HIV-positive and the donors could not be contacted, as they had given false names and contact numbers. One HIV- positive person had repeatedly donated blood using different aliases.

According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, 11 donors were found to be HIV-positive in 1987. The number of such cases jumped to 54 in 1997 and 82 last year. A senior ministry official said, "It's obvious that the number of these people using donation for the purposes of testing [their blood] is rising."

"Blood donors must be aware that serious consequences could occur if people who might have been infected with [HIV] donate their blood just to get it tested," said Jugo Hanai, who attended a ministry panel on blood affairs that was held Monday.

"Blood samples should be individually checked," rather than having 50 samples together screened for diseases, "even if it costs much more to do so," said former House of Representatives member Satoru Ienishi, who was infected with HIV through a tainted blood product. "The ministry's responsibility is heavy as it has largely left safety measures to be dealt with by the Japanese Red Cross Society," he added.
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