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Chinese scholars have called for improved protection of the labor rights of hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers as many are unable to get jobs with local governments and companies.

Li Kungang, associate professor with the Law School of the Beijing-based Renmin University of China, said he had seen a number of reports on job discrimination against HBV sufferers in recent years.

"This liver disease cannot be spread through casual contact. Barring the carriers from work for no good reason contravenes the Labor Law. Such practices also infringe HBV carriers' equal rights to employment," yesterday's China Youth Daily quoted Li as saying.

HBV is mainly transmitted through the exchange of bodily fluids such as contaminated blood and semen, shared needles and infected mother to newborn child contact.

China has an estimated 120 million HBV carriers -- roughly 10 percent of the country's total population. Most of them show no symptoms and don't pose a threat to work colleagues but are unable to secure employment and suffer social discrimination.

"It's a huge waste of human resources and will exacerbate social tension if this massive group of people is not provided with proper jobs," Li said.

Ye Jingyi, a professor from Peking University's Law School, said that under China's previous system companies had to foot the bill for all medical expenditure of HBV carriers. They run a greater risk of developing liver cirrhosis and cancer.

But the old way has been replaced by the medical insurance system under which companies only need to pay premiums for their employees. Fear of high medical costs can no longer be used as an excuse to refuse HBV carriers work, Ye said.

She observed that society shouldn't ignore the plight of carriers and the government should rapidly enact laws against job discrimination.

In April 2004, Zhao Xiaohua won a lawsuit against the personnel affairs bureau of the Wuhu government, in east China's Anhui Province, after being rejected for a job because he was an HBV carrier.

It was considered a landmark case since it gave carriers a lift in their fight for equal employment opportunities.

While there are no national laws or regulations forbidding HBV carriers from joining public service many local governments and central government departments have issued their own regulations to bar them.

However, some local administrations, including central Hunan Province and southwestern Guizhou Province, have lifted the ban on employing HBV carriers.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2007)