By Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Madam Yan and 11 other mothers in
China turned to the All-China Women’s Federation for help after
their toddlers were denied places in kindergarten after testing
positive for the Hepatitis B virus.
“When I see other children going to school happily and mine
is alone, my heart drips with blood,” Yan wrote.
Hepatitis B is preventable through vaccination and there
are drugs to control the replication of the virus in carriers,
such as Yan’s child, who shows no symptoms.
Risk of infection through casual contact is minimal, and in
many places worldwide, most carriers go about their own
business whether in school or at work, facing little or no
discrimination. But in China, fear of the virus has reached
hysterical proportions, health experts say.
Ignorance and relentless advertisements by drugmakers
making misleading claims about the disease and touting all
kinds of magic cures have built a climate of terror surrounding
the virus, and discrimination against carriers, they add.
Many schools, universities and companies now subject
students and staff to regular health checks to screen for the
virus.
Toddlers who test positive are refused entry to school,
older students are expelled, men and women can’t find work and
some couples are forced into separation by terrified in-laws.
Qing Song, an activist who helps carriers fight
discrimination at work, related a case where a young pregnant
woman discovered her carrier status during a prenatal check. Continued…
