Victim of a 'Preventable' Disease: Ryuhei Kawada

摘要

Toward the end of December 1987, Ryuhei Kawada, then a fifth grader, was informed by his mother Etsuko that he had been infected with the potentially deadly human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A hemophiliac, he had been treated, since he was around three years old, with blood products not subjected to heat treatment. It was surmised that he had become infected with the virus through unsafe products imported from the United States.