Cancer, Cancer Treatment

BEIJING (Reuters) - A group of 101 mothers have written to China’s Communist Party leadership for help after their toddlers were denied kindergarten places for testing positive for hepatitis B.

China has passed laws in recent years reversing a ban on its 120-130 million hepatitis B carriers from the civil service, and banning companies from using the virus as an excuse to fire or not hire.

But activists and sufferers say discrimination and stigma fueled by ignorance remain widespread and a number of provincial governments still have laws banning carriers from kindergartens, despite minimal chances of infection from casual contact.

“Our children have already been unfortunate enough to be infected with hepatitis B, and yet to be treated with such discrimination they cannot receive a normal pre-school education,” said a transcript of the letter carried in the Beijing News on Thursday.

“How will this affect our children’s lives? How will stigmatization affect their character and their growing into adults? We dare not think,” it added.

Li Hua, a mother from coastal Shandong province, said the letter targeted Liu Yandong, a female member of China’s cabinet, the State Council, with an education portfolio.

“We thought of writing to Premier Wen Jiabao but thought he might be too busy… Then we thought of Liu Yandong because she is the only woman on the State Council… is possibly a mother herself, and can more deeply understand our feelings,” Li told Reuters by telephone.

Hepatitis B is usually transmitted from mother to child, but can be passed on through sex, blood transfusions and contaminated needles.

While older children and adults can flush out the virus, children under five usually end up carrying it for life. One in four are at risk of developing cirrhosis — scarring of the liver — or liver cancer later in life. Continued…

Source

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Posts:


I love vaccines. The other day, at my 4-year-old son’s annual check-up, a physician’s assistant asked me whether I had any questions before she shot him up with a half-dozen varieties, including polio, mumps-measles-rubella and flu, and I said, “Heck no, bring them on!” I have long known that vaccines are considered among the greatest advances

Full Post: Forgoing vaccines has a social cost
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW YORK — A phalanx of white-coated doctors endorses Camel cigarettes in an exhibit that opened this month at the New York Public Library. Movie stars and baseball greats are there, too, in tobacco ads dating from the 1920s to the 1950s. Even Santa Claus is there, puffing on a Pall Mall.

Full Post: The Smoke Screen of Vintage Ads
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It?s no secret that alcohol is no good for our health, as it might increase our risk for liver disease, oral or breast cancers and even alcohol poisoning when drunk in excessive amounts. More and more car accidents happen because alcohol consumption. More and more lives are ruined because the ?mind-blowing? effect of alcohol. The

Full Post: Paying More For Alcohol May Actually Save Lives
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Preventing, treating and defeating cancer are among the greatest scientific challenges and personal triumphs of our time. And right now, we have the power to save our mothers, sisters and daughters from a type of cancer that claims a life every two minutes globally. Cervical cancer progresses over decades, attacking women who might

Full Post: Our Vote to End Cervical Cancer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday October 29, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) — A new Korean study published on Oct 9 in Archives of Toxicology suggests that ingestion of bisphenol A or BPA may not increase risk of breast cancer. The study led by Yang M at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, Republic of Korea found there was no significant difference in

Full Post: Could BPA raise breast cancer risk?