Japan HIV Tragedy Produces Proposed New Laws

The Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare has set up a committee todraw up plans to increase the availability of medical information, which could include requiring doctors to show patients their medical charts. The group is to hold its first meeting this month.

The MHW says the current shortage of information supplied to patients was to blame for the infection with HIV of hemophiliacs from contaminated blood products in the 1980s. However, a MHW official quoted in The Japan Times queried whether, as doctors in Japan do not always inform cancer and terminally-ill patients of their diseases, all the content of the chart should be shown to a patient.

The MHW is also proposing legislation allowing Japan to become self-sufficient in the supply of blood products. The bill, expected to be presented at the next ordinary Diet (parliament) session in January, will make the government responsible for supervising the activities of blood product manufacturers and the Japanese Red Cross Society.