Students With Hepatitis B File Lawsuit After School Officials Bar Enrollment

November 3, 2006

Officials at three middle schools in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), have barred 19 students diagnosed as hepatitis B positive from enrolling, according to an October 19 Radio Free Asia report. The Urumqi Bureau of Education approved the decision after the students were diagnosed in their matriculation health check. Seven of the students have since filed a lawsuit against the Urumqi Bureau of Education, according to an October 19 South China Morning Post (SCMP) report (subscription only).

Officials at three middle schools in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), have barred 19 students diagnosed as hepatitis B positive from enrolling, according to an October 19 Radio Free Asia report. The Urumqi Bureau of Education approved the decision after the students were diagnosed in their matriculation health check. Seven of the students have since filed a lawsuit against the Urumqi Bureau of Education, according to an October 19 South China Morning Post (SCMP) report (subscription only). On October 18, XUAR authorities shut down the Xinjiang "Snow Lotus" AIDS organization, which had publicized the case of the 19 students, according to an October 20 SCMP article. While authorities formally shut down the group for its failure to register with the government, a source close to the organization suggested its reporting of the hepatitis B case prompted the closure.

A Ministry of Health (MOH) spokesperson criticized the school officials' decision to bar the students, according to an October 11 China Daily article. The spokesperson stated, "This is prejudice. All these students can go to school unless they are sick enough to be hospitalized." According to the students’ lawyer, all of the students have medical documentation that they are otherwise healthy, as reported by the SCMP. A September 2 MOH circular on education about hepatitis B explains that carriers are not a threat to those working, studying, or living around them.

Carriers of hepatitis B in China face discrimination in schooling and employment, despite protections in the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, as amended in 2004. Article 16 of the amended law prohibits discrimination against people with infectious diseases, people carrying the pathogen of an infectious disease, and people who are suspected of having an infectious disease. A 2005 survey co-sponsored by the China Foundation for Hepatitis Prevention and Control, covering 583 hepatitis patients in 18 provincial-level areas, found that 52 percent of the respondents reported encountering discrimination in employment and education, according to a September 29, 2005, article in the China Daily.

Some hepatitis carriers have taken legal action against unfair treatment. In November 2005, a student initiated a lawsuit against a university in the XUAR after university authorities suspended 156 students diagnosed as hepatitis B positive in their matriculation health checks, according to a February 16, 2006, China Development Brief report. Students also formed an action group and circulated fliers to protest the unfair treatment. A student in Henan filed a lawsuit against a university in that province, alleging that the school denied him admission because he is a carrier of the hepatitis B virus. The university had denied the student admission, despite his having scored above the cut-off point on the entrance examination. His application showed that he had tested positive for hepatitis B.

For more information on government policy regarding infectious diseases, see section V(g) Public Health, of the Commission’s 2006 Annual Report.