Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) conducts a patient survey every 3 years.
However, it turned out that they eliminated the data of Fukushima and a part of Miyagi from their statistics this time.
Since a few weeks ago, this “harmful rumor” has been spreading on the internet.
各都道府県の国公立医師会病院の統計によると、今年の4月から10月にかけて、「白血病」と診断された患者数が、昨年の約7倍にのぼったことが21日に判明した。これを受けて、日本医師会会長原中勝征は、原発事故との因果関係は不明として、原因が判明次第発表するとした。
白血病と診断された患者の約60%以上が急性白血病で、統計をとりはじめた1978年以来、このような比率は例が無いという。
また、患者の約80％が東北・関東地方で、福島県が最も多く、次に茨城、栃木、東京の順に多かった。
Translation:
11/21/2011, according to the survey of medical association of each local government, since this April to October, leukemia cases have increased by 7 times over last year.
Having this result, the chairman of medical association, Haranaka Katsumasa, said that the connection between this unusual increase of leukemia cases and the Fukushima accident is not clear, but once they figure out the reason, they will announce it.
60% of the total leukemia cases are acute leukemia. This is the highest ratio since 1978, when they started taking this survey.
80% of the patients are from Northern Japan and the Kanto area. Fukushima has the highest rate while Ibaraki, Tochigi, Tokyo follow.
Though it is very detailed and sounds authorized, Japan Medical Association denied this information on its web site.
To clear up this “confusion”, a Japanese citizen asked Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for the truth, to which they replied that they take all patients statistics but that this year they eliminated the data from Fukushima and a part of Miyagi from the whole statistics report.
They say it is to support the reconstruction of Fukushima and Miyagi, but we all know that in reality abandoning the survey only makes the situation worse.
On 3/11, earthquake and Tsunami hit Miyagi and Iwate for most of the part while Fukushima suffers from radiation mostly.
If they really wanted to try to “help reconstruction efforts” (sic), they should eliminate the data of those three prefectures, with Iwate and Miyagi given a higher priority.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare does not give any more specific reasons why.
(Source)