Outdated vaccine injected into 1,000... 
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Outdated vaccine injected into 1,000s of kids
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200303/12/20030312p2a00m0dm004000c.html
Over 2,000 children were immunized a decade ago with unreliable vaccines known for causing side effects and well past their use-by date, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Wednesday.
Physicians across Japan continued to inject children with vaccines for mumps, measles and rubella even after the ministry had decided they no longer should be used.
But ministry officials said there was no danger in them doing so.
"They're still effective (vaccines) even if they are about half a year past their use-by date," a ministry spokesman said.
Typically, the ministry's plan of action is more like one of inaction.
"Our probe into the situation has left us with the impression that individual physicians didn't pay sufficient care with what they were doing. We will set up a panel of experts and look into the correct and fundamental approach to take regarding immunization," the ministry spokesman said.
Ministry officials said the MMR vaccinations were given to children aged from 1 to 6 during the four years from April 1989. As the vaccinations were producing too many side effects, their maker announced in September 1991 that it would cease producing them. The medicines were said to be effective for one year.
Ministry officials looked into how much of the outdated vaccines were used after October 1992, the time the ministry's supplies of the drugs reached the prescribed end of their effectiveness.
Going through documents of the only 10 prefectures still with paperwork from the time, the ministry learned 2,070 children had been injected with the out-of-date vaccines. (Mainichi Shimbun, March 12, 2003)
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200303/12/20030312p2a00m0dm004000c.html
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- Families win lawsuit over MMR vaccin... LCD
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This is a reply to # 368,764Families win lawsuit over MMR vaccine
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030314a7.htm
OSAKA (Kyodo) The government and a research center affiliated with Osaka University were handed a court order Thursday to pay a total of 155 million yen to the families of two children who died or suffered side effects after receiving the MMR vaccine.
The vaccine, which covers measles, mumps and rubella, has since been banned because of its high side effects rate.
The families of three children who were given the vaccine between 1989 and 1991 had sued the government and Osaka University's Research Institute for Microbial Diseases for a total 350 million yen in damages, claiming that their children had developed aseptic meningitis as a result.
The Osaka District Court stated that the institute produced the vaccine via a method different from that submitted to the health ministry and was the likely reason for the ensuing problems.
Presiding Judge Shinichi Yoshikawa ruled that vaccinations are procedures "that the state actively carries out from the perspective of protecting society."
He added that the government neglected its responsibility over the supervision of vaccine manufacturers and for ensuring that they follow the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law.
It is the first time that a court has ruled on a damages case related to the vaccine, whose side effects have affected about 1,800 people nationwide.
The court ruled that the death of the son of a couple in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, and the serious brain damage suffered by 13-year-old Hana Ueno, from Hanamaki, Iwate Prefecture, were caused by the MMR vaccine.
It ruled, however, that the child of a couple in Hyogo Prefecture died after contracting influenza.
Legal experts said that the ruling, which accorded the government a hefty supervisory responsibility over vaccinations, could have a great impact on future health administration and medicine-related lawsuits.
The Japan Times: March 14, 2003
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