More than half of hepatitis B patients have lost out on an ideal job or educational opportunity because of their disease, a sample survey shows.

However, China has made some progress in protecting the working rights of hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers, said Weng Xinhua, an expert from the Chinese Medical Association.

The Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Health revised national standards covering health qualifications for public servants saying that HBV carriers who do not show symptoms can still apply for jobs in the public service.

And Zhang Xianzhu, a young man in the city of Wuhu in East China's Anhui Province, won the country's first job discrimination case involving the rights of non-infectious HBV carriers in early 2004.

Zhang sued the Wuhu municipal government's personnel bureau in December of 2003 after he was rejected for employment because he has HBV.

And Central China's Hunan Province also cancelled the regulation forbidding HBV carriers to be public servants last year.

Meanwhile, the amended Chinese Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, which became effective last December 1, also says that companies and persons cannot discriminate against HBV carriers.

China has 120-million HBV carriers, nearly one 10th of its population, and 30 million of them have become active patients, said Weng at a meeting yesterday.

But Weng added: "The hepatitis B virus (HBV) brings out a lot of bad effects on people's health, work, and family and social activities."

Among these bad effects, discrimination is still a quite severe problem, said Weng yesterday in Beijing, as he reported the results of the survey to the media.

About 52 per cent of the 425 hepatitis B patients surveyed said they once lost a job or educational chance due to their disease.

And 47 per cent worry their employers might lay them off if they discover they are HBV sufferers. The survey is actually done by Synovate Healthcare, a company headquartered in London.

The patients come from six cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and Shenyang. They took the survey from October to November of 2004.

Source: China Daily