标题: No room at the hospital for long-suffering hepatitis carriers [打印本页] 作者: StephenW 时间: 2010-10-29 19:55 标题: No room at the hospital for long-suffering hepatitis carriers
No room at the hospital for long-suffering hepatitis carriers
By Wu Huaiting
Getting through pregnancy is tough enough; being a hepatitis B carrier makes it even worse for expecting moms in China.
Recently, I received a lot of fraught phone calls from one of my pregnant friends.
As the mother of a two-year-old, she is not unfamiliar with all the hormone changes and the emotional roller coaster during the pregnancy.
But as a haigui (returnee from overseas) who gave birth to her first child in the US, she found it difficult to cope with the treatment of pregnant woman with hepatitis B in China.
Even in the most expensive hospital in Beijing that caters exclusively to the expats and the rich Chinese, she felt an often unsubtle discrimination.
On her first visit, she saw a Chinese obstetrician. Unlike the smiling, patient and friendly physicians she had got so used to during her long stay in the US, the obstetrician had an indifferent tone, typical of big hospital doctors in China.
But the worse was yet to come. When my friend mentioned that she was a hepatitis B carrier, the doctor told her bluntly that nobody wants to share a delivery room with a hepatitis B carrier and she would have to give birth in a quarantined area.
Discrimination against the hepatitis B carriers is nothing new. My friend knew that hepatitis B carriers were treated differently in job hunting and many other areas. But all this was distant to her until she discovered, when in the US, that she was a carrier.
That discovery changed her life, for the moment at least. After hearing all the horrible stories in China about how hepatitis B virus carriers were treated and couldn't have healthy babies, she panicked and worried that the news was going to wreck her family.
Luckily, both her husband and her doctor assured her that nothing would happen. The doctor further eased her mind by telling her that all her Asian clients with hepatitis B had healthy babies. Later, my friend had a happy pregnancy and gave birth to a healthy baby.
So my friend thought it might all be because of the obstetrician. Trying an American physician might make things much easier. She booked an appointment with an American physician now working in China.
But things didn't go the way my friend hoped. The American physician had a better attitude and was a little more patient, but she gave my friend no assurance about her status as a hepatitis B carrier and told her that she was not certain that my friend could deliver at the hospital. It all depended on the progress of the pregnancy and the doctor claimed she had to follow the hospital rules.
The visit killed my friend's last hopes. She lost confidence in the local medical system. She had been to the best possible hospital in Beijing. Where else in China could she go?
In our long conversations over the phone, I could hear the sadness in her voice. She felt like a different woman in China. The happy and confident mother was gone. I wished I could comfort her, but, facing the reality in China, I had nothing to say.
Last week, I received an e-mail update from her. She told me that she had just gone back to the US for the birth and was not going to return even after the delivery.
Her new doctor reassured her that she did not need to worry a bit about being a hepatitis B carrier. Everyone in the clinic is immunized and the new baby will be immunized too. There was no reason to treat her differently from others.
So life is back on track for my friend. But it left me thinking how China had just lost another talent because of the overwhelming concern over the hepatitis B. I believe the Chinese medical staff at Beijing's hospitals are all properly immunized against hepatitis B and use the same methods to protect their patients.
With such a high population of hepatitis B carriers, they should have more knowledge of the disease and act more professionally than their US peers.
But the reality is the opposite. Carriers are already discriminated against in every walk of life. The hospital should be the last place they face prejudice. The author is a former reporter with the Global Times who now resides in the US. viewpoint@ globaltimes.com.cn 作者: StephenW 时间: 2010-10-29 19:57
English to Chinese (Simplified) translation
没有长期遭受苦难的肝炎带菌者的房间在医院