A waste disposal worker at a hospital may have died of AIDS after contracting HIV by accidentally pricking himself with discarded needles, according to a report submitted to a health ministry panel.
It is the first death of its kind reported in Japan, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
According to the ministry, the man, who was in his 50s, was diagnosed with AIDS in May and died soon after. Before he died, he told his doctor that he had accidentally pricked his fingers with discarded needles several times while cleaning operating rooms at a hospital.
The doctor reported the possible cause of the infection as a "needle-pricking case" based on the man's accounts and presented it to the Tokyo metropolitan health center, which submitted it to the ministry panel on July 31.
The name of the hospital involved and when the injuries were sustained were not disclosed.
The ministry is to call on cleaning staff handling medical waste to take precautions and will conduct a fact-finding survey into the disposal of medical waste.