The ban on employment of non-infectious hepatitis B virus (HBV)
carriers by government agencies was lifted on Tuesday by the
government of Hunan
Province, in central China.
The action is regarded as a major milestone in a national
movement fighting discriminatory hiring practices against HBV
carriers.
With some exceptions, government agencies may legally reject
candidates based on the condition of their liver.
Yang Chunlin, vice director of the Personnel Department of the
Hunan provincial government, said on Tuesday that the newly revised
regulation on civil service employment directs that non-infectious
HBV carriers may, for the first time, be employed by government
agencies.
Ironically, on the same day Zhou Yichao, a HBV carrier who was
rejected for a civil service job, was executed in east China's Zhejiang
Province because he killed an official who rejected his
application in April last year.
Zhou passed a civil service exam in January 2003 in Jiaxing City
and ranked among the top candidates; but his application was
rejected because he tested positive for hepatitis B, a liver
disease he never knew he had. Many HBV carriers do not show any
symptoms of infection.
Feeling wronged and driven by anger, Zhou broke into the
recruitment office, stabbed one official to death and seriously
wounded another.
The tragedy might not have occurred if Zhou had applied for the
post a year later. The Zhejiang government opened the civil service
recruitment door to non-infectious HBV carriers like Zhou earlier
this year.
Non-infectious HBV carriers are those who do not show any
symptoms of infection, but three of the five indices of their
livers test positive.
Health experts say the virus in them is in a relatively stable
state and there is little likelihood of the carriers infecting
others.
Some 120 million Chinese people, a number equivalent to the
total population of France and Britain, are chronic carriers of the
disease. Many of them show no symptoms and do not pose a threat to
their coworkers.
Health experts say hepatitis B is spread through the exchange of
bodily fluids, such as contaminated blood, unprotected sex, shared
needles and infected-mother-to-newborn contact. It cannot be
contracted through casual contact such as shaking hands.
However, this huge group of HBV carriers, making up roughly 10
per cent of the Chinese population, is locked out of jobs and
suffers social discrimination.
The HBV carriers call themselves as "HBVER." They have
established a well-known website, www.hbver.com, where more than
20,000 HBVERs have registered and call for protection of their
rights to employment and other social benefits.
"I have a dream that one day we HBVERs may have the same
opportunities as other people to learn, to work and to live. I hope
the day will not be far away," says a message at the website.
As China begins to pay more attention to the plight of HIV/AIDS
patients and public health in general after last year's SARS
(severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, hepatitis is starting
to inch toward the forefront of public attention. The latest move
in Hunan serves as a catalyst.
Hepatitis B is incurable but preventable with a vaccine. The
Chinese government is stepping up efforts to immunize newborns and
gradually reduce the overall infected population.
(China Daily March 4, 2004)