The Japanese Red Cross Society has asked the health ministry to lift its ban on shipments of blood products, part of which stemmed from blood tainted with type B hepatitis virus, arguing that the virus is removed in the production process, ministry sources said.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry banned shipments of such blood products on Jan. 11 on the grounds it is difficult to evaluate their safety.

However, the Red Cross maintains that their safety is scientifically confirmed, the sources said.

The ministry has decided to set up a panel in fiscal 2002, which starts in April, to consider allowing the shipments, noting that a technical safety guideline for the removal of viruses was established in 1999 and that it is important to promote domestic self-sufficiency in blood products, the sources said.

An official at the ministry's Blood and Blood Products Division said, "We will make a decision carefully after listening to experts' views."

The issue, however, is especially sensitive because of the scandal over blood products infected with the HIV virus in the past.

The Red Cross claims the amount of virus in the blood used to make the products is trivial and that steps are taken to remove the virus and prevent it from being infectious.

It says products subject to the ban are equivalent to blood donated by about 94,000 people and that it does not make sense not to use them when their safety has been scientifically confirmed.

The Red Cross has refrained from shipping about 21,400 blood products, equivalent to about 18,800 liters of human plasma. It produced the blood products in September and is now keeping them in storage.

The Red Cross discarded about 240,000 liters of blood products between fiscal 1996 and 1999 because of contamination, the sources said.

Makoto Handa, head of the transfusion center at Keio University Hospital, said the process used now has brought the chance of new blood products being contaminated to virtually zero.

But he added: "It is natural that patients tend to emotionally reject shipments of such products. Since the issue is complicated, we need to collect a wide range of opinions including from patients."

Jugo Hanai, representative of a group of plaintiffs in an HIV compensation suit in Osaka, said: "I can understand that the danger of infection through the blood products is low if steps are taken to remove the virus during the production stage."

"But the government needs to make clear that the responsibility lies with the state if the government changes its previous judgment and allows the shipment."

It is important to form a consensus through discussions between experts and patients, he stressed.

The ministry imposed the ban after learning last month that a man had contracted the virus during a blood transfusion using tainted blood that was also used to make processed blood products.