The New York Times reported yesterday that China is planning to end required testing for Hepatitis B. The decision looks like one small victory for advocacy.
Apparently those infected with Hepatitis B have up until now faced widespread and systematic discrimination, including being barred from universities and jobs. From an article in the New York Times earlier this year:
Even though it is preventable with a vaccine — and most of those infected will not become ill — state-owned companies, medical schools and food-processing plants have come to believe that it is sensible policy to bar the infected.
Under Chinese law, carriers of hepatitis B cannot work as teachers, elevator operators, barbers or supermarket cashiers. In a recent survey of 113 colleges and universities, conducted by the Yi Ren Ping Center, 94 acknowledged that infected applicants, required to take blood tests, would be summarily rejected.
Many of the 120 million carriers in China got the virus in the 1970s and 1980s, when a single contaminated syringe was sometimes used to inoculate hundreds of people at a time against diseases. The second-biggest group of carriers, about 40 percent of the total, according to the government, got the virus from their mothers during childbirth.
An online bulletin board maintained by Mr. Lu’s group is a heart-rending clearinghouse for stories of people fired from jobs, or students denied college educations, after mandatory blood tests revealed their statuses. There are also scores of tales about the ashamed and the distraught who killed themselves.
“People are so afraid of this virus, they don’t act responsibly,” said Wang Li, an engineer who just graduated from a prestigious Beijing university and saw two job offers evaporate this year when blood tests showed that he had the virus. “The only thing they told me was, ‘You are not suitable for work.’ ”
The Yi Ren Ping Center, an NGO that provides services for people infected with Hepatitis B and advocates for their rights, had its office searched by security agents in July, at a time when a number of NGOs and h-man r-ghts groups were harassed or shut down (possibly because of a desire to avoid any type of disturbances around the recent celebration of China turning 60 — or because of power struggles happening behind the scenes at high levels that we don’t know about). Lu Jun, the founder of the organization, talked to the New York Times back in July, after the security agents photographed volunteers and walked away with 90 pamphlets:
Although his organization does not seek to challenge the government’s authority, Mr. Lu recognizes that its mission can stir discomfort among the powerful and mighty. “After all, it is these people who are maintaining the status quo of discrimination,” he said in his office on Thursday. “And of course, according to the gov-rnment, there is no such thing as discrimination in China. There are only misunderstandings.”
Misunderstandings — that’s exactly the type of language used in the statement from the Health Ministry that announced the decision:
“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.”
Either way, whether or not the word “discrimination” is used, this decision seems like a big step in the right direction and a small but encouraging signal on the status of civil society.