Health care systems in transition. II. Japan, Part II. The current status of AIDS-HIV in Japan.

Abstract

Since die first AIDS case reported in February 1985, AIDS has become a serious social issue in Japan. In advance of the identification of AIDS cases, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) organized a research group under its own sponsorship to establish the diagnostic criteria of AIDS and a nation-wide surveillance system. In February 1987, the Government established a Ministerial Committee on AIDS Control, which approved a National AIDS Control Program: the AIDS Prevention Law went into effect in February 1989. The program and the law have set the basic framework for the AIDS policy of the Japanese Government. In March 1992, the Ministerial Committee on AIDS Control revised the National AIDS Control Program.