NR APBT
AU anonym
TI CJD patients, relatives demand 320 mil. yen in damages
QU COMTEX Newswire Mon, Jun 7, 1999
VT
TOKYO - Lawyers filed a lawsuit Monday demanding a total of 320 million yen in damages from the state and two companies for three people who contracted a fatal brain disease from imported dura mater. The lawsuit filed at the Tokyo District Court says the three people, one of whom has since died, contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) from transplants of dura mater, the membrane surrounding the brain and spinal chord.
The six plaintiffs said the state, a German company, B. Braun Melsungen AG, that produced the dura mater, a Tokyo-based importer and its officials are responsible.
This suit brings to 10 the number of CJD patients or their relatives demanding compensation at the Tokyo and Otsu district courts, Shiga Prefecture.
The CJD patients in the latest suit are a 16-year-old boy from Sapporo, and a 53-year-old woman from Chiba, east of Tokyo. A 59-year-old man from Usa, Oita Prefecture, died from CJD last month.
The two surviving patients received the imported dura mater in transplant operations 14 to 15 years ago. They were diagnosed with CJD last year and are currently hospitalized.
The two are not among 61 patients recognized by the Health and Welfare Ministry as CJD patients who have undergone dura mater transplant operations, they said.
One of the lawyers for the plaintiffs said, "As the incubation period is long, there is fear that more patients with the disease will be discovered from now on...We want to aim for an early resolution of the suit."
CJD, similar to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or "mad cow" disease, is a progressive fatal disease of the brain marked by development of porous brain tissue, premature dementia in middle age, and gradual loss of muscular coordination.
IN Bei einem 16 Jahre alten Jungen aus Sapporo (Japan), einer 53 Jahre alten Frau aus Chiba (östlich von Tokyo, Japan), sowie einem vor einem Monat gestorbenen 59 Jahre alten Mann aus Usa (Japan), wird die Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Krankheit mit der Transplantation von Dura Mater der Braun Melsungen AG in Verbindung gebracht. Die beiden noch lebenden PatientInnen hatten die Dura mater 14 bzw. 15 Jahre zuvor erhalten und wurden bereits 1998 diagnostiziert. Außer diesen beiden registrierte das japanische Gesundheitsministerium 61 CJD-Patienten, denen Jahre zuvor Dura Mater erhalten hatten.
SP englisch