The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Thursday it will extend its medical insurance to cover antibiotics used to treat anthrax patients, anticipating the possibility of domestic biological attacks.
The decision was made at the ministry's headquarters for emergency counterterrorism measures, headed by Administrative Vice Minister Jungoro Kondo, officials said.
Anthrax infection is not covered by health insurance plans managed by the government because no more than one or two cases crop up every few years. But the ministry has decided to go as far as allowing doctors to prescribe antibiotics even when just the possibility of exposure exists.
The ministry also confirmed that domestic pharmaceutical companies have stockpiles of anthrax antibiotics to treat several hundred thousand people.
It will also upgrade equipment at emergency medical centers.
The ministry will seek around 1.1 billion yen in a supplementary budget for the measures.
current fiscal year to cover costs associated with these and other measures, the officials said.
Counterterrorism officials also decided that the ministry will ask pharmaceutical companies to produce and stock vaccines for several million people against the possibility of attacks using the smallpox virus.
Smallpox vaccines are not produced domestically because the World Health Organization declared in 1980 that the virus had been eradicated.
But the ministry is hoping that by acting soon, it can prepare for potential infections affecting a large area, such as central Tokyo.