Govt, NGOs unite to fight health crises
- Source: Global Times
- [04:41 October 13 2009]
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Those discovered to be infected can find themselves denied enrollment at a university, fired from a job or rejected as an applicant, barred from employment and educational opportunities by companies and universities after mandatory blood tests return a positive result, despite the negligible transmission risk posed by casual contact with a hepatitis B carrier.
These tests are often done illegally; although Chinese law protects the privacy of current and prospective employees, these laws are not consistently enforced or are too vague to be enforceable.
Hepatitis B is only one of many potential social crises facing China as it develops. Although the country is getting richer, the government, like any other, can't deal with the range of these problems entirely by itself.
In China, although carriers of hepatitis B have an uphill battle in fi ghting both the disease and the stigma, they don't have to do it alone. Organizations exist that offer educational, legal and emotional support to carriers of hepatitis B.
One such organization is the Beijing-based Yirenping Center, which provides medical information, arranges legal aid for those who have been dismissed from jobs on the basis of their carrier status, collects statistics on the nature and extent of discrimination, and campaigns for stronger anti-discrimination laws.
Its online forum, "In the Hepatitis B Camp," gives carriers a medium for exchanging information, ideas, stories and encouragement. With 300,000 members, it is the largest such forum in the world.
It also works on preventing discrimination against those suffering from other communicable diseases, such as AIDS, and draws attention to public health scandals.
Centers such as Yirenping pose no threat to public security. If anything, by addressing social problems that cause considerable public distress and anger, they help defuse that anger by giving it an outlet, and support social harmony.
The center, like others, is also doing work that is supported by government policy, which stresses educational and anti-discrimination initiatives.
The Chinese government needs to use NGOs to supplement its own work in health and education.
Every country in the world does this to some extent, tapping into private initiative and charity.
In the UK, for instance, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Children and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) work closely with state authorities. The RSPCA even has limited legal powers to bring those who harm animals to court.
In the US, a huge variety of NGOs offer educational programs, run welfare centers, provide free medical coverage, and so forth. In many states, particularly poorer ones, the system would collapse entirely without their assistance.
This is one reason why the US, like many countries, provides generous tax breaks for charitable donations.
The author is a Beijing-based medical technician and freelance writer
