The ban on employment of non-infectious hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers by government agencies was lifted on Tuesday by the government of Hunan Province, in central China.

The action is regarded as a major milestone in a national movement fighting discriminatory hiring practices against HBV carriers.

With some exceptions, government agencies may legally reject candidates based on the condition of their liver.

Yang Chunlin, vice director of the Personnel Department of the Hunan provincial government, said on Tuesday that the newly revised regulation on civil service employment directs that non-infectious HBV carriers may, for the first time, be employed by government agencies.

Ironically, on the same day Zhou Yichao, a HBV carrier who was rejected for a civil service job, was executed in east China's Zhejiang Province because he killed an official who rejected his application in April last year.

Zhou passed a civil service exam in January 2003 in Jiaxing City and ranked among the top candidates; but his application was rejected because he tested positive for hepatitis B, a liver disease he never knew he had. Many HBV carriers do not show any symptoms of infection.

Feeling wronged and driven by anger, Zhou broke into the recruitment office, stabbed one official to death and seriously wounded another.

The tragedy might not have occurred if Zhou had applied for the post a year later. The Zhejiang government opened the civil service recruitment door to non-infectious HBV carriers like Zhou earlier this year.

Non-infectious HBV carriers are those who do not show any symptoms of infection, but three of the five indices of their livers test positive.

Health experts say the virus in them is in a relatively stable state and there is little likelihood of the carriers infecting others.

Some 120 million Chinese people, a number equivalent to the total population of France and Britain, are chronic carriers of the disease. Many of them show no symptoms and do not pose a threat to their coworkers.

Health experts say hepatitis B is spread through the exchange of bodily fluids, such as contaminated blood, unprotected sex, shared needles and infected-mother-to-newborn contact. It cannot be contracted through casual contact such as shaking hands.

However, this huge group of HBV carriers, making up roughly 10 per cent of the Chinese population, is locked out of jobs and suffers social discrimination.

The HBV carriers call themselves as "HBVER." They have established a well-known website, www.hbver.com, where more than 20,000 HBVERs have registered and call for protection of their rights to employment and other social benefits.

"I have a dream that one day we HBVERs may have the same opportunities as other people to learn, to work and to live. I hope the day will not be far away," says a message at the website.

As China begins to pay more attention to the plight of HIV/AIDS patients and public health in general after last year's SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, hepatitis is starting to inch toward the forefront of public attention. The latest move in Hunan serves as a catalyst.

Hepatitis B is incurable but preventable with a vaccine. The Chinese government is stepping up efforts to immunize newborns and gradually reduce the overall infected population.

(China Daily March 4, 2004)