Hi, I was thrilled to find the English part of this fabulous website! I am a perfectly bi-lingual Chinese-Australian working for CNBC as their Shanghai presenter. It wasn't until my husband recently contracted acute hepatitis B that I became aware of the endemic that is hepatitis, as well as the rampant discrimination in China. An interesting exercise, to google the same thing in Chinese and English – for example, hep B. The Chinese pages are as numerous as China’s carriers of the virus, with advice ranging from disinfecting everything, stop having sex, eat more celery, don’t believe in scam doctors, to the intricacies of how you can detect absolute recovery, many more are dedicated to fighting discrimination. Meanwhile, the US government says nothing about isolating patients with the disease, advocates bed rest and a balanced diet, the UK government says there’s nothing wrong with sharing cups or crockery. Whereas in China -- as soon as my husband was hospitalized, the district health centre called me (they've called me quite a few times since) to enquire about whether I knew how to disinfect the house top to bottom.
At the infectious diseases ward of the Long March hospital -- there is a patient -- a 30 year old man from Changshu whose family has borrowed 50,000 yuan to pay his medical bills -- from the look of the family, it'll probably take years for the family to pay it off. All this could have been avoided by better screening, education and vaccination.
I am being rocked to my core about this disease. When avian flu is taking up press space and air time, the size and seriousness of this potentially fatal disease – goes unnoticed. Perhaps that’s why billionaires set up funds for certain diseases – the proximity to oneself stuns one into action. China needs to set up regular screenings for this disease. Dentists like the one where my husband contracted the virus should be ordered to conduct proper sterilization. Anyway, enough of my ranting, please let me know what I can do to help the hepatitis cause. Lei |