Advocates fight to cure prejudice

Joseph Christian, June 1, 2010

CHINA DAILY - Despite huge number of Chinese who have HBV, discrimination runs rampant.

There are more than 100 million of them in China - nearly one person in 10. They are all around us: mechanics, lawyers, teachers and students. On the streets of Beijing , it is impossible to point them out, for they laugh, cry and carry on just like the rest of us. Yet there is something very different flowing through their veins. It is their secret and curse - the hepatitis B virus (HBV).

According to a recent study by the Asian Liver Center at the Stanford University School of Medicine, HBV kills as many as 280,000 people every year in China - more than tuberculosis, HIV and malaria combined.

Even as those carriers worry about the health risks of HBV, a potentially life-threatening liver infection, they must also overcome the hurdle of discrimination.

Read more at China Daily.