Government is responsible to give relief to all CJD victims -- Akahata
editorial, November 21 (excerpts)

Two district courts ruled that the state and pharmaceutical companies
have a responsibility to relieve Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD) patients
and their bereaved families. The plaintiffs in the lawsuits demand
compensation for the agony associated with the disease caused by
contaminated dura mater.

No cure for CJD has yet been found, and it is said that patients become
unable to speak or move in several months and die within three years after
they contract the disease. In fact, 25 out of 28 patients in the lawsuits
are now dead.

The lawsuits questioned the lack of perception of the possible danger and
belated measures to counter the danger.

The German medical equipment manufacturer continued to sell the product,
even though it could foresee the danger by 1978.

Japan's Health and Welfare Ministry was informed of the first CJD case in
the United States in February 1987. But it was only in 1997, after the World
Health Organization issued a recommendation, that the ministry ordered a
halt to shipping and a recall of the product. Compared with the United
States which scrapped and imposed an embargo on the product as soon as a CJD
case was first reported, Japan is ten years' behind in taking
countermeasures.

The district courts stated that the health and welfare minister should
fulfill his duty as the "final custodian of safety" for the public. The
state should assume responsibility for ignoring information and neglecting
to respond based on it.

The government should accept the courts' statement, admit its
responsibility and apologize to the patients, work for the relief of all CJD
victims, and take specific steps to prevent and eliminate all
medicine-related diseases. (end)