AEGiS-UPI: Medical epert gets 3 years for negligence

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Medical epert gets 3 years for negligence

United Press International - Wednesday, 26 July 2000
Motoko Naito

TOKYO, July 26 (UPI) -- A leading expert on hemophilia has been sentenced to three years in prison by a court that said he had failed to detect HIV contamination of a hemophiliac in 1985 despite knowing that continual injection of unheated blood products can cause death.

The expert, 84-year-old Takeshi Abe, who is also the former vice president of Teikyo University, said he was innocent.

Abe was charged with negligence and that he had allowed three junior doctors to inject unheated blood products into a hemophiliac three times in 1985, causing the male patient, who ultimately died of HIV-related complications, to be infected with the HIV virus. At the time, Abe was head of internal medicine at Teikyo University.

According to prosecutors, the three doctors couldn't stop the injections without orders from their boss, Abe.

They also said Abe must have known about the dangers of unheated blood products as he had gained access to documents on AIDS at home and abroad, in research papers at international symposiums and U.S. National Cancer Institute data.

Abe was first tried in March 1997. But old age and a weak heart prevented them from questioning him intensely.

Abe will be given his final sentence next spring.
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