The last of the more than 1,000 plaintiffs to seek damages from the central government and five drugmakers over their infection with HIV through tainted blood products has reached a court-managed settlement with the defendants, judicial sources said Tuesday.
Reached Monday, the settlement at the Tokyo District Court ends a 22-year court battle over transmission of the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus through tainted blood products after the first group of plaintiffs filed a damages suit in 1989.
The sources said the defendants will pay ¥28 million in damages to the plaintiff, who filed suit with the court in 2008, more than 20 years after the tainted blood products were administered to him.
Lawyers for plaintiffs in the series of suits over HIV infection said 1,384 plaintiffs have reached compromise agreements with the defendants. There are no plans for further lawsuits, they said.
In the tainted blood product scandal, a large number of people, mainly those with hemophilia, were exposed to the HIV virus through the use of unheated blood products in the 1980s.
In 1996, a landmark compromise settlement was reached at the Tokyo District Court between more than 400 plaintiffs and the government and the pharmaceutical companies. At the time, current Prime Minister Naoto Kan was health minister.