Victory for excluded hepatitis B students

By Chen Qian  |   2008-11-22  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

SEVENTY-FOUR hepatitis B-positive students in Yunnan Province have won court approval to study in a vocational school.

They were forced to drop out of school at the end of August 2007 after a medical examination showed they are hepatitis B virus carriers, China Youth Daily reported yesterday.

After negotiations with Yunnan Industrial Vocational School in Qujing City failed, two students filed a lawsuit against the school in December 2007.

The attorney for the two students said the liver functions of the hepatitis B-positive students are normal and they posed no danger of spreading the virus.

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education, students who carry the hepatitis B virus are allowed to enroll in schools, but are limited to certain majors.

However, the school argued it is not managed by the Yunnan Education Bureau, so it did not need to follow the Ministry of Education's regulations, the report said.

Qilin District People's Court in Qujing City heard the case on June 27 and ordered the school to enroll the students this week.

According to the report, they are the first batch of hepatitis B-positive students to win court support.

However, they lost 14 months fighting discrimination, said Lu Jun, who runs a Website for hepatitis-B carriers.

Wu Rongrong from Beijing Yirenping Center, a non-profit organization that fights discrimination, said discrimination toward hepatitis B-positive students is popular as the test is still requested before enrollment.

China has about 93 million chronic hepatitis B sufferers.