Japan ? Kidneys taken from patients who tested positive for hepatitis B, syphilis or suffered infectious kidney abscesses were transplanted in four operations by Dr. Makoto Mannami at Uwajima Municipal Hospital in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

Medical experts, who are investigating the transplants by Mannami and other doctors, described the hospital’s actions as “unbelievable,” pointing out that recipients are required to take immune suppressants, which make them highly susceptible to infectious diseases.

According to sources, blood from a patient whose kidneys were removed due to nephrosis in December 2000 at Uwajima Municipal Hospital and died a few months later, tested positive for the hepatitis B virus.

When the virus spreads throughout a patient’s body, the disease becomes chronic and the patient is likely to suffer liver cancer or liver cirrhosis.

Two patients, who each received a kidney from the donor, are still alive, but when the transplants were made at the hospital, they were not screened for hepatitis B.