"System and Technology of Blood Use: Hemophiliacs and Coagulation Factor Products in Postwar Japan"
KITAMURA Kentaro
last update: 20151224
System and Technology of Blood Use: Hemophiliacs and Coagulation Factor Products in Postwar Japan
KITAMURA Kentaro
Abstract:
The purpose of this article is to describe the history of the blood use of hemophiliacs in Japan. It describes the
start and development of the blood supply system and the development of plasma fractionation technology in
the postwar period up to the first half of 1980's.
General Headquarters (GHQ) directed the establishment of a safe blood supply system in 1948. Paid blood
donation supported the blood supply system in Japan until the Reischauer affair in 1964, after which the
cabinet decided to change the basis of nation's blood supply from paid blood donations to free blood donations.
After the discovering of "cryoprecipitate" in 1965, coagulation factor products for stopping blood were
developed. It was so effective that young hemophiliacs at that time actively aimed at the introduction and
spread of home infusions, even though they feared hepatitis, because they wanted to participate in society.
The cabinet's 1964 decision, however, created problems which became apparent 1970's. First, no measures
were considered for securing the raw material plasma for plasma fractionation. Second, targets for blood
donation were for stored blood only. Third, the financial underpinnings for the development of a blood supply
system based on free blood donation were not clarified.
Keywords: Hemophilia, Coagulation factor products, Home infusion, Blood supply system
REV: 20151224