China's Hepatitis B carriers face gloomy future

By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Madam Yan and 11 other mothers in China turned to the All-China Women's Federation for help after their toddlers were denied places in kindergarten after testing positive for the Hepatitis B virus.

"When I see other children going to school happily and mine is alone, my heart drips with blood," Yan wrote.

Hepatitis B is preventable through vaccination and there are drugs to control the replication of the virus in carriers, such as Yan's child, who shows no symptoms.

Risk of infection through casual contact is minimal, and in many places worldwide, most carriers go about their own business whether in school or at work, facing little or no discrimination. But in China, fear of the virus has reached hysterical proportions, health experts say.

Ignorance and relentless advertisements by drugmakers making misleading claims about the disease and touting all kinds of magic cures have built a climate of terror surrounding the virus, and discrimination against carriers, they add.

Many schools, universities and companies now subject students and staff to regular health checks to screen for the virus.

Toddlers who test positive are refused entry to school, older students are expelled, men and women can't find work and some couples are forced into separation by terrified in-laws.

Qing Song, an activist who helps carriers fight discrimination at work, related a case where a young pregnant woman discovered her carrier status during a prenatal check.