Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Friday, October 4, 1996
Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press Writer
The arrest was the latest in Japan's largest medical scandal in years, which critics say developed from collusion between ministry officials, doctors and drug companies.
Already, a leading hemophilia specialist, Dr. Takeshi Abe, and the current and former presidents of a major drug company have been arrested.
Today, Akihito Matsumura, former chief of the Health and Welfare Ministry's blood products department, was arrested in connection with the death of two patients given untreated imported blood coagulants in 1985 and 1986, the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office said.
If convicted, the 55-year-old Matsumura faces up to five years in prison. Local media say he is the first bureaucrat in Japan ever to be arrested on charges of professional negligence.
The investigation focuses on why the health ministry as well as major drug companies and hemophilia experts did not act on evidence available as early as 1983 that unheated blood products could lead to HIV infection.
Japan imported untreated blood products in large quantities until July 1995, when heat-treated blood was finally approved here. It is alleged that the delay was part of a conspiracy to give Japanese drug companies time to develop their own treated blood products.
About 2,000 Japanese, mostly hemophiliacs, contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from the untreated products. About 400 have died.
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