Military版 - Settlement for Japanese Hep B patients |
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a***c
发帖数: 2443 | 1 Someone mentioned the number of population infected with the Hep B
virus in China yesterday. Coincidently a Hep B related story also made
the front page of 朝日新聞 yesterday.
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201101130344.html
EDITORIAL: Hepatitis B infections
The Sapporo District Court has presented a proposed settlement in a
case involving people who say they were infected with the hepatitis B
virus through the reuse of needles in group vaccinations.
The plaintiffs are all demanding compensation from the government.
However, the deliberations over the court's settlement faced
complications over the treatment of asymptomatic carriers who are
infected but have not developed signs of the illness.
The court's proposal calls for the government to pay 500,000 yen
($6,200) to each sufferer for the cost of past and future medical
checkups and transportation expenses. The plaintiffs have been
demanding a settlement of 12 million yen for mental damage suffered
when informed of their infection, anxiety over their futures and
restrictions on their social lives.
We understand there are people who find the gap between the
plaintiffs' demands and the court's proposal unacceptable. However,
the settlement was reached as a result of a compromise following
discussions between the patients and the government, with the court
acting as a go-between. We support it.
As for the carriers who do not show symptoms, the dominant legal view
is that their right to claim compensation expires after 20 years from
vaccination. The practice of reusing needles ended more than 20 years
ago. The plaintiffs argued that the statute of limitations should be
20 years after they learned of their infection, but the court has not
accepted this argument. We know it is not easy to bring together
plaintiffs whose ideas and circumstances differ, but we urge the
lawyers representing these people to explain the situation in detail
and move toward a complete settlement.
Everybody involved in the court process has worked hard to establish
that the plaintiffs underwent vaccinations and to assess the amount to
be paid to them. We believe the court's proposal is reasonable in
light of a philosophy of trying to provide broad redress.
According to a government estimate, a maximum of 1 trillion yen will
be needed over the next five years and 2 trillion yen over the
following 25 years to fund this proposed settlement. Some idea of the
scale and spread of the hepatitis B infection can be gained by
comparing this estimate to the total annual budget for cutting the
proportion of medical expenses paid by people between the ages of 70
and 74 from 20 to 10 percent, which is only about 200 billion yen.
Taxpayers will shoulder this burden. That fact gives us pause, but we
have no choice but to brace ourselves and accept it.
Vaccinations were implemented on a virtually mandatory basis to
protect society and individual children from infectious diseases. Any
of us could have been infected or seen our loved ones suffer. We need
to squarely face the long-term damage done by these infections with
imagination and empathy.
To ensure proper redress, legal measures similar to those applied to
hepatitis C will be needed. The period of needle reuse more or less
overlaps with the Liberal Democratic Party's period in power, and has
broader implications for public policy. It raises issues not only
about public health but also has to do with the future management of
financial affairs. We urge political parties to transcend their
differences and work together on the fundamental issues here.
We must move toward comprehensive hepatitis measures including
increasing medical checkups, an effort to grasp the actual spread of
the problem and to advance research to stem the development of
symptoms. The fight against this illness, which has been described as
a national disease, is a major problem that must be shouldered by the
public. |
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