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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/world/asia/13beijing.html
October 13, 2009
China to End Required Testing for Hepatitis B
By ANDREW JACOBS
BEIJING — Chinese health officials will abolish mandatory testing for hepatitis B during physical exams given to prospective college students, factory workers and government employees, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.
The new rules, announced Saturday by the Health Ministry, mean that people found to be carrying the hepatitis B virus will not be automatically barred from jobs and classrooms, a form of discrimination widely decried by health care advocates and the estimated 120 million people in China thought to be infected. It is not uncommon in China for hepatitis B carriers to be barred from medical school, teaching positions or jobs in the food production industry.
In announcing their decision, officials suggested that they were yielding to public pressure, especially from activists who in recent years have begun organizing on the Internet.
“On account of the questions brought up by media and society concerning hepatitis B testing, the Health Ministry has come to a consensus,” Deng Haihua, a spokesman said in comments posted on the ministry’s Web site. “The current social misunderstanding about hepatitis B patients is mainly a result of a lack of understanding. The experts believe that canceling blood testing for the purpose of employment and students entering schools will not affect the health of others, nor will it cause the disease to spread.”
Lu Jun, who runs an organization in Beijing that has been pushing the government to ease its testing policies, described the new rules as a victory for hepatitis B carriers as well as those trying to change society through public advocacy and legal action. “International standards have now been realized in China,” he said in an interview.
In July, the offices of Mr. Lu’s group, the Yirenping Center, were raided by the police, who confiscated literature they said had been illegally published.
Many of those who carry hepatitis B in China were infected by contaminated syringes during childhood inoculation campaigns in the 1970s and ’80s. Others contracted it from their mothers during childbirth. |
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发表于 2009-10-13 09:58
