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Call made for new relief measures for A-bomb survivors in South America

by Junpei Fujimura, Staff Writer

A group of Japanese doctors, who visited five countries in South America to provide health checkups to A-bomb survivors, held a press conference at the building of the Hiroshima Prefectural Government on October 29 to report on the mission. The group of doctors pointed out that A-bomb survivors residing there are unable to visit Japan for free medical treatment due to advancing age and are forced to shoulder the high cost of receiving treatment in their own nations. The doctors called for new relief measures to aid these overseas survivors.

In two separate teams, the doctors visited eight cities in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Peru from October 8 to 25. They visited Belem, a city in Brazil on the bank of the Amazon estuary, for the first time. During this period, the doctors examined a total of 94 survivors aged 64 to 94. Three of these survivors will reportedly apply for A-bomb disease certification in the countries where they reside, which has become possible since April of this year.

According to the doctors, a man living in Sao Paulo, who is 73, was diagnosed with stomach cancer but gave up the idea of traveling to Japan for treatment due to the heavy burden he would bear both mentally and physically. He will have to pay from 5 to 6 million yen to undergo treatment at a local hospital.

Makoto Matsumura, 61, the leader of the group and the executive director of the Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association, stressed: “Due to their age, the survivors there are not easily persuaded to visit Japan for treatment. It is high time that new relief measures are considered, such as the Japanese government covering the whole cost of treatment at local hospitals for those survivors residing in South America.”

(Originally published on October 30, 2010)

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