Group to sue over hepatitis C
People with hepatitis C have formed a group to sue the government and drugmakers for damages over their infection during mass vaccinations even though they have no clear evidence, such as medical charts.
The group, which includes relatives of people who died after becoming infected, plans to file the damages suit involving about 20 hepatitis C patients mostly from Niigata Prefecture, as well as Tokyo, Saitama and Chiba, with the Tokyo District Court around this fall.
The group argues it is unfair that the people are not qualified for aid under a law providing relief for hepatitis C patients only because they have no clear evidence of how they were infected.
The group said it will aim to file a mass suit involving some 100 plaintiffs in the future by asking similar victims across the country to join them.
The group's leader is Hironobu Tsuboya, 36, from the city of Niigata. His mother, Akiko Tsuboya, died at age 65 in April 2009. He told a news conference in Tokyo on Monday that 80 percent to
90 percent of such victims are not covered by the relief law that took effect in January 2008 and called on the government to work out relief measures for them.
According to the group, there are about 10,000 hepatitis C patients across the country, but only about 1,500 of them are currently covered by the relief law.
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