Hepatitis B, C viruses detected in 4 blood products

[Guest guest]

Hepatitis B, C viruses detected in 4 blood products

Friday, December 28, 2007 at 13:29 EST

TOKYO — A forensic doctor has detected hepatitis viruses in four kinds of blood product which are not covered in a series of damages suits filed by people who contracted hepatitis C after being administered with tainted blood products, the doctor and other medical sources said Friday.

The four are immunoglobulin, haptoglobin, plasmin and cholinesterase blood products made in the 1970s and 1980s by now-defunct drug maker Green Cross Corp, which is now part of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. Tatsuo Nagai, professor emeritus at Kitasato University, detected the viruses after analyzing protein materials and gene information contained in the blood products, which he had obtained from Green Cross.

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/423904