The last week in October…that means that we are getting close to the conference! I’ve had a chance to review all of the student presentations and I am very impressed with the caliber of the work going on at our universities. After reviewing both the submitted abstracts and power point presentations, I am really looking forward to hearing these presentations in person. If you are not able to attend the conference, then you really should watch the student presentations LIVE on East Villagers on Saturday, November 14th at 2:30pm. Please see the schedule below for presentation times: 2:30 pm Session 5: Team HBV Collegiate Chapters Student Presentations (Building 200-002) Moderator: Alena Groopman, MHS, Global Health Coordinator, Asian Liver Center at Stanford University "A Hepatitis B Education Program as a Model for Community-Level Intervention" (10 minutes) Frank Chen, Kate Xie, and Francis Deng, Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts Title Pending (10 minutes) Chen Fenglin, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China "B-Aware Certification Program" (10 minutes) Alex Rosenberg, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York "Fundraising through hepatitis B charity basketball tournaments" (10 minutes) Patric Liang, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Title Pending (10 minutes) MinZu University, Beijing, China "Team HBV at UC Berkeley’s Hep B Day" (10 minutes) Rebecca Hu, David Elledge and Jen Yang, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California “Jade Ribbon Dance at Duke Chinese Dance Troupe Showcase” (10 minutes) Malini Veerappan, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina "Key to Maximize the Effectiveness of Activities" (10 minutes) Wang Pei, Jiatong University, Shanghai, China "Lyrical Expression: Jade Ribbon Campaign Benefit Concert" (10 minutes) Weei Lo, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
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For Immediate Release Media Contact: Alena Groopman, groopman@stanford.edu
October 23, 2009
Tel: 650.721.6630
http://liver.stanford.edu/ International College Students Unite Against Hepatitis B and Liver Cancer at the Inaugural Team HBV Conference at Stanford University Stanford, CA – On November 13, 2009, over fifty outstanding international representatives from across the United States and China will come together to launch the Inaugural Team HBV Collegiate Conference at Stanford University. The weekend conference, hosted by the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University and supported by the Ping and Amy Chao Foundation and the Liu Hac Minh Foundation, brings together individuals representing Team HBV chapters worldwide, Jade Ribbon Campaign advocates, and hepatitis B and liver cancer experts from over twenty prestigious universities worldwide. The conference provides a professional forum for Team HBV Collegiate Chapters to share insights, best practices, and strategies to advance hepatitis B outreach, education, and communication. The conference is an excellent opportunity to receive updated hepatitis B news and legislation, network with other chapters, and advance the future of hepatitis B and liver cancer outreach education.
There are over 350 million people worldwide who are chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which causes 60-80 percent of liver cancer. In fact, one in ten Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Americans and one in ten Chinese are chronically infected with HBV. Education, outreach and advocacy remain the key components for combating this neglected global pandemic. At the first Team HBV Collegiate Conference, students will have the opportunity to present to their peer and learn from leaders from the fields of medicine and public health in over thirty presentations. Speakers include: - Dr. Dale Hu, MD, MPH, Epidemiology Research Team Leader, Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Division of Viral Hepatitis, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Saturday, 11/14, 9:00 AM) - Dr. Samuel So, MD, FACS, Director, Asian Liver Center, and Lui Hac Minh Professor of Surgery, Stanford School of Medicine (Saturday, 8/5, 7:20 PM) (If you would like to attend a talk or arrange an interview with a speaker, please email: groopman@stanford.edu) Conference Details: DATES: Monday, November 9, 2009 to Sunday, November 15, 2009; LOCATION: Stanford University, Stanford CA About Team HBV Collegiate Chapters: The Team HBV Collegiate Chapters raise awareness about hepatitis B, promote the ideals of the Jade Ribbon Campaign, and ultimately strive to better the health and general welfare of the student body and the local community as it pertains to hepatitis B and liver cancer. About the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University: The Asian Liver Center at Stanford University is a national and international leader in fighting hepatitis B and liver cancer through outreach, education, advocacy, and research. http://liver.stanford.edu/ Jade Ribbon Campaign: In May 2001, the Asian Liver Center launched the Jade Ribbon Campaign to spread awareness about hepatitis B and liver cancer in the Asian community. The objective of the campaign is to increase awareness and provide ethnic-sensitive health information to reduce this major health disparity and improve API health.
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Exciting news from the Asian Liver Center! Our activities and programs continue to grow and flourish, much due to the dedication and passion from our staff, interns, volunteers and partners. Please join me in welcoming our newest staff member, the new Outreach Coordinator of the Asian Liver Center, Diana Ngo! Diana isn't entirely new to the ALC family; she has volunteered for many years through our Vietnamese Outreach program. We are thrilled that Diana has joined our team. She will lead the fight against hepatitis B and liver cancer through community outreach and education. Contact Information: Diana Ngo, MPHc
Outreach Coordinator
diana.ngo@stanford.edu.
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Category:
Hepatitis B
OCT. 19, 2009 Increased hepatitis vaccination in China would save thousands of lives, hundreds of millions of dollars, Stanford study showsBY DAVID ORENSTEIN Aaron Kuo-Deemer  Although Chiina aims to give all newborns free hepatitis B vaccines, this child getting the shot and millions more fell through the cracks. A documentary about a pilot test of the vaccination program in China is available here. A massive new program in China to provide “catch-up” inoculations against hepatitis B to more than 100 million unvaccinated children could prevent millions of infections, save tens of thousands of lives and return twice as much in savings to the Chinese economy as the program costs, according to a new study by engineering and medical researchers at Stanford University. Hepatitis B is a pandemic in much of East Asia because it is easily transmitted from mother to child by blood or between sexual partners by other bodily fluids as well as blood. Meanwhile, the symptoms, until resulting diseases becomes life-threatening, are subtle, said Samuel So, MD, professor of surgery and the Lui Hac Minh Professor at Stanford, who is one of the study’s senior authors. Although many patients can fight off the virus, up to 300,000 a year die in China from hepatitis B-related liver cancer and other liver diseases. “That means more people die in China each year from hepatitis B-related liver diseases than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined,” said So. In the paper posted online Oct. 19 by the journal Hepatology, the researchers predict that if China spent $423 million to inoculate an estimated 150 million unvaccinated children ages 1 to 19, it would produce a net return in the economy of $840 million from lower health-care costs. Moreover, their model indicates that inoculations would prevent 8 million infections along with 65,000 deaths. China’s program, designed by officials who have seen the Stanford research, will inoculate all unvaccinated children under age 15. “It’s a virus that can be prevented with a safe and cheap vaccine, so stopping it is really a question of global public health action,” said Margaret Brandeau, PhD, professor of management science and engineering at Stanford and the other senior author of the study. She and So guided the work of the study’s lead author, management science and engineering doctoral student David Hutton, who developed the model used in the study. China has provided free hepatitis B vaccines to all newborns since 2002, but millions of poor and rural youngsters have nevertheless not been inoculated. Children born before that initiative went into effect could benefit from “catch-up” shots as well. The vaccine has been available since 1986. So has been working with Chinese and world health officials for years to combat hepatitis B. The Asian Liver Center at Stanford, which So directs, worked with Chinese officials in 2006 and 2007 to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of a widespread catch-up vaccination program. In the remote Qinghai province, local governments, schools and the ALC provided more than 550,000 children with a free regimen of the vaccine’s three doses, as well as comprehensive education about the disease. “Besides protecting future generations from this disease, one major impact of this is an effort to eliminate discrimination,” said So. “People who become chronically infected, often called hepatitis B carriers, are widely discriminated against in China. A lot of schools from kindergarten on up will test the children, and if they are positive, they will not be admitted.” So’s experience and judgment about the need to expand vaccinations in China — and screening of immigrant populations in the United States — have made him an influential advocate within the world public health community. But there has been little data to guide policymakers. “If you want a government to change a policy, you need to have cost-effectiveness data, but there was none,” So said. In 2006, through a mutual student, Daniel Tan, So connected with Brandeau, whose specialty in the field of operations research is developing mathematical and economic models of programs to combat infectious diseases. Brandeau and Hutton began gathering data and building a model to determine the cost effectiveness of various measures to slow the spread of hepatitis B. “As engineers, we could make a real difference by creating this model and proving, or disproving, that it’s a good thing to do,” Brandeau said. In the study, the authors factored in many variables including the cost of the vaccine; likely infection, disease and mortality rates; current health-care costs in China; the vaccine’s effectiveness (about 95 percent); and vaccine compliance rates. The study also models what would happen if currently unvaccinated children are not inoculated. The bottom line result, based on the most likely values of the variables, shows that the program will meet the international standard of “highly cost effective,” meaning that each additional year of life saved will cost less than the per capita gross domestic product in China, about $2,500. The model allows for manipulating any of the variables to determine the program’s effectiveness under different conditions. What if, for instance, the price of the vaccine doubled? What if the virus became more virulent? In all but the most extreme cases, the program remains cost effective, Hutton said. The research can be applied to other nations with similar hepatitis B pandemics, such as Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, Hutton said. “It would be easy to take data from a different country and put it into this model,” said Hutton, who recently won an award from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences for his hepatitis B modeling research. The team performed the China study with no external funding. “This is just something we thought was the right thing to do,” said So.
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Work on the Team HBV Website is almost complete! This has been a huge undertaking involving many volunteers planning, organization and time. I would like to personally thank Mandy and Derek and their team of volunteers for developing such a fantastic public face of the new and improved Team HBV. As we began to develop the new conceptualization for Team HBV, we realized that not only did our structure need rethinking, but also needed to rethink our social marketing strategies, including a new Team HBV logo and website. The website will be unveiled soon!
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I would like to share the Team HBV Conference Program with you all since you (yes, YOU!) will actually be able to watch the conference presentations LIVE on East Villagers. Please feel free to respond and ask questions on East Villagers or twitter (#teamhbv). One of the exciting aspects of the conference is that it is interactive with people who cannot attend. We really want to maximize participation from all Team HBV Chapters members and other people interested in HBV and liver cancer outreach, education and advocacy. 2:30 pm Session 5: Team HBV Collegiate Chapters Student Presentations (Building 200-002) Moderator: Alena Groopman, MHS, Global Health Coordinator, Asian Liver Center at Stanford University "A Hepatitis B Education Program as a Model for Community-Level Intervention" (10 minutes) Frank Chen, Kate Xie, and Francis Deng, Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts Title Pending (10 minutes) Chen Fenglin, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China "B-Aware Certification Program" (10 minutes) Alex Rosenberg, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York "Fundraising through hepatitis B charity basketball tournaments" (10 minutes) Patric Liang, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Title Pending (10 minutes) MinZu University, Beijing, China "Team HBV at UC Berkeley’s Hep B Day" (10 minutes) Rebecca Hu, David Elledge and Jen Yang, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California “Jade Ribbon Dance at Duke Chinese Dance Troupe Showcase” (10 minutes) Malini Veerappan, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina "Key to Maximize the Effectiveness of Activities" (10 minutes) Wang Pei, Jiatong University, Shanghai, China "Lyrical Expression: Jade Ribbon Campaign Benefit Concert" (10 minutes) Weei Lo, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
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We’re confirming our high school participants at the Team HBV Conference. We are thrilled that so many of our young high school students from the Jade Ribbon Youth Council and the Team HBV high school chapters are able to join us. On Tuesday, November 10th, the Jade Ribbon Youth Council will meet with the delegates from China to present on their Hepatitis B Awareness Week declaration and activities that surround API Heritage month and World Hepatitis Day. On Thursday, November 12th, the high school students from the city of Cupertino have been invited to participate in the tour and dinner reception, hosted by the Ping and Amy Chao Family Foundation, at Cupertino City Hall with the delegates from China. On Saturday, November 15th, the high school chapter presidents and JRYC are all invited to participate in the Team HBV Conference. We hope that their experiences at the conference will help motivate and empower them to utilize the skills and strategies employed by the college chapters. Although the high school students will not be making official presentations at the conference, they will be encouraged to participate in the flip videos and social media time. Diana, our new Outreach Coordinator, is taking the lead on working with our high school students. One of our future plans is to develop a more cohesive Team HBV high school chapter structure similar to our current college chapter structure.
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The end of another busy week. But I think there will definitely be some work getting done this weekend. No rest for the Team HBV Working Group! I know that all of the efforts made by my fantastic team of staff, interns and volunteers will pay off at the conference and for the future of Team HBV. I am meeting with the ALC staff today to review the packed agenda for the conference. They are all now really excited about everything planned! (And you should be too!)
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In exactly one month from today, we will be officially beginning the first annual Team HBV Collegiate Conference! To be cliché, it really seems like only yesterday Amy, Jen, Tini and I were sitting down discussing Team HBV and thinking about how great it would be to bring all of the national chapters together for the first time. After all, we bring over 100 high school students together each year and they all have a blast meeting each other, learning about HBV and developing their own outreach and education campaigns. And here we have over 20 chapters who actually do their own outreach and education events and activities throughout the year. What better way to build upon their current strategies and learn how to better position Team HBV in the national spotlight to further the mission of the Jade Ribbon Campaign than to bring all of the chapters together. It was Dr. So’s great idea to also invite our sister chapters in China to participate in the first conference. It promises to be an exciting week/weekend! Now it’s the final push from the Asian Liver Center and Team HBV Advisory Board to get all of our last touches in the logistics and operations of this huge event. Wish us luck!
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Category:
Hepatitis B
Via New York Times - October 13, 2009 - China to End Required Testing for Hepatitis B
By ANDREW JACOBS
BEIJING — Chinese health officials will abolish mandatory testing for hepatitis B during physical exams given to prospective college students, factory workers and government employees, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.
The new rules, announced Saturday by the Health Ministry, mean that people found to be carrying the hepatitis B virus will not be automatically barred from jobs and classrooms, a form of discrimination widely decried by health care advocates and the estimated 120 million people in China thought to be infected. It is not uncommon in China for hepatitis B carriers to be barred from medical school, teaching positions or jobs in the food production industry.
In announcing their decision, officials suggested that they were yielding to public pressure, especially from activists who in recent years have begun organizing on the Internet.
“On account of the questions brought up by media and society concerning hepatitis B testing, the Health Ministry has come to a consensus,” Deng Haihua, a spokesman said in comments posted on the ministry’s Web site. “The current social misunderstanding about hepatitis B patients is mainly a result of a lack of understanding. The experts believe that canceling blood testing for the purpose of employment and students entering schools will not affect the health of others, nor will it cause the disease to spread.”
Lu Jun, who runs an organization in Beijing that has been pushing the government to ease its testing policies, described the new rules as a victory for hepatitis B carriers as well as those trying to change society through public advocacy and legal action. “International standards have now been realized in China,” he said in an interview.
In July, the offices of Mr. Lu’s group, the Yirenping Center, were raided by the police, who confiscated literature they said had been illegally published.
Many of those who carry hepatitis B in China were infected by contaminated syringes during childhood inoculation campaigns in the 1970s and ’80s. Others contracted it from their mothers during childbirth.
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Today, Jen, Ying Ying, Diana and I are meeting to work on the Team HBV Conference. We're going to lay out exactly what needs to get done and who is going to do it...since the conference begins in one month from tomorrow! It's really important to have a dedicated team and working group to plan, organize and execute any large-scale event and even more important to define the roles and responsibilities of each person involved. Luckily the four of us also have a dedicated and passionate team of volunteers and advisors who will bring this conference to life.
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Today is our academic year Team HBV Intern’s first day on the job! Although she is not new to Team HBV or the ALC, I would like to formally introduce her to the East Villagers community. Meet Jen Wang, 4-time ALC Intern vet, who just cannot get enough of the ALC. And boy, are we grateful! Jen has proven time and time again that she passionate and determined to spread the word about hepatitis B and liver cancer through innovative and creative approaches. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work with her on Team HBV and pulling off the first Team HBV Collegiate Conference. It will be a busy and productive year! Also in Team HBV news, we are working on the final version of the new, and very much improved, Team HBV Collegiate Chapter Manual, which will prove useful to both new and existing chapters alike. It is a comprehensive guide to the mission and activities of Team HBV chapters with examples of events and strategies to advance the Jade Ribbon Campaign and educate campus and local communities. The new Manual also discusses the changes made to the structure of Team HBV, including the national Advisory Board and chapter Executive Boards. It comes together after a year of restructuring and rethinking how Team HBV can function as a national and international advocacy and educational organization. We hope that the manual will provide better guidance to new chapters, especially seeing our incredible surge of potential new chapters throughout the past year.
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Category:
Hepatitis B
| Chinese vice premier stresses orderly reform of health care | | | | NANCHANG, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang has called for orderly implementation of the country's health care reform. Li, also head of the State Council's leading group on health care system reform, made the remarks at a symposium in Jiangxi's capital city Nanchang on Saturday. Li underscored major projects to be carried out to push forward the reform by the year-end: -- The expansion of basic medical insurance coverage to 72 million more urban workers and unemployed residents, and ensuring at least 90 percent of the rural population to be covered. -- Assistance for the vaccination of 23 million people below the age of 15 against hepatitis B and providing free folic acid supplements for 11.8 million rural women who intend to get pregnant or are in the early stages of pregnancy to prevent birth defects. -- Improving primary health care facilities, including county and township-level hospitals, village clinics, and community health centers. -- Ensuring about 30 percent of government-owned community health institutes and county-level hospitals use medicines on an essential drug list and sell them at controlled low prices. -- A pilot reform in about 100 state-run hospitals by the year-end to draw experience from trial projects to push forward the reform across the country. China's three-year plan for health care reform, involving an investment of 850 billion yuan (124 billion U.S. dollars), was unveiled in April. It aims to lay a solid foundation for equitable and universal access to essential health care for everyone in the country by 2020. |
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Category:
Hepatitis B
Hello everyone, I wanted to bring your attention to another article demonstrating the great work that individuals are doing in China to combat and eliminate HBV discrimination. All the best, Alena
| 09:23, September 25, 2009 |  Hepatitis B carriers challenge discrimination The efforts of a young migrant worker from Fujian Province to become a cook in Beijing ended up creating a spectacle that involved reporters, disease control authorities and the police.
Mr Liao, who declined to give his full name, has the hepatitis B virus. He was applying for a health certificate at the Beijing Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention when reporters followed him on September 10. The certificate is required for all food catering workers.
There was hope for him to get it as a college student in Hangzhou became the first hepatitis B virus carrier in China to be issued the certificate on September 1. The new Law of Food Safety, which came into force on June 1, allowed hepatitis B virus carriers to enter catering.
But when reporters photographed his application process, the Beijing Centers staff became upset and finally called the police. Liao's application was put off.
"Beijing is Beijing. You cannot compare it to other cities," Liao quoted the Beijing Centers staff as saying. He was told this after asking why hepatitis B carriers could obtain the certificate in Hangzhou but not Beijing, he said.
Liao was not frustrated. He plans to visit the Centers again after a few weeks. "I have hundreds of thousands of people standing behind me," he said.
He is a core member of an online community for hepatitis B carriers. The website hbvhbv. com has accrued 370,000 members since it was launched in November 2007. Community members encouraged Liao to apply and showed him favorable laws and regulations. One of them accompanied him to the Beijing Centers.
A non-governmental organization (NGO) provided him with legal support. Beijing Yirenping Center counsels more than 100 people who come from around China every month and helps about 10 percent of them go to the court.
It was built with donations from hepatitis B carriers and foundations in December 2006.
Like Liao, hepatitis B virus carriers are no longer fighting alone for their rights. Many know each other on the Internet. They have clubs in a dozen major cities and have set up several non-governmental organizations in defense of their rights.
They believe that they have been discriminated against in the process of finding a school or looking for jobs. In spite of government regulations in their support, some of the best universities and institutions have closed their doors to hepatitis B virus carriers, and many Chinese and multinational companies prefer non-carrier candidates.
Hepatitis B carriers might be the largest marginalized group in China. China had 100 million chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus, according to a World Health Organization 2002 report, with the United States having 1 million and the world an estimated 350 million. China's Ministry of Health said in 2006 that the country had 93 million hepatitis B virus carriers.
Stepping into the light
In spite of their large numbers, it is only in recent years that these marginalized people have made their voice heard. Before, they were either silent or neglected.
"Even now many hepatitis B virus carriers prefer to remain silent. They are afraid that they will lose their jobs and have difficulty in finding other jobs when people know that they carry the virus," said Yu Fangqiang, who is in charge of legal aid projects at the non-governmental Yirenping Center.
Zhang Xianzhu, a 23-year-old college graduate, became the first Chinese to launch a lawsuit on hepatitis B virus discrimination when he took the local government of Wuhu, Anhui Province to court in November 2003. He won the case, but "became so famous that he could not find or maintain a job," Yu said.
"He is still shifting from one job to another in southern China. He has to leave as soon as people know that he is the one who sued for hepatitis B virus discrimination."
A greater hero for many hepatitis B virus carriers is an executed murderer. Zhou Yichao, a graduate of Zhejiang University, stabbed to death a government official in the prefecture-level city of Jiaxing, northern Zhejiang Province, in March 2004. A month earlier, he had been denied the chance of working at the local government because he carried the virus.
"The greater majority of hepatitis B carriers whom I know have respect and even gratitude for him. They organize events to remember him on the annual tomb sweeping day. They visit his mother regularly," Yu said.
"If not for him, discrimination against hepatitis B carriers would have been taken for granted as before. We think that he was going to extremes. But we understand how he felt."
Months after Zhou's case, the central government issued a regulation in January 2005 stipulating that hepatitis B carriers can become public servants.
Hepatitis B carriers are allowed to work in jobs other than those prohibited by the Ministry of Health – such as at hospitals and laboratories – according to another regulation published in May 2007. The regulation also said that the privacy of hepatitis B virus carriers should be protected.
They can launch lawsuits if a potential employer discriminates against them, according to the Employment Promotion Law, which came into force on January 1, 2008.
Although they have the protection of laws and regulations, hepatitis B virus carriers still have the feeling that the virus harms their career.
"Many excellent people cannot get into good companies because they carry the virus. They can only stay at small companies and small places," said Dong, a hepatitis B carrier who accompanied Liao to the Beijing Centers.
Dong, who would not give his full name, said he could not join a major aviation company when he graduated from college in 2007. He is pursuing a master's degree at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and will finish his graduate studies next year.
"My only good choice was to be a public servant because the government has excluded the hepatitis B virus from pre-employment physical checkups. The companies that may use my skills almost all require information about the virus," he said.
Legal battles
To get around the requirement about hepatitis B virus information, many carriers resort to cheating in the physical checkup, said Yu at the Yirenping Center. In a typical case, a carrier will pay a healthy person about 2,000 yuan, and have the latter's blood drawn under his name.
Others seek out the law. "Hepatitis B carriers know that the law is on their side, thanks to the publicity of previous cases," Yu said. Of those who turned to his organization for help, more than 100 went to court every year.
Multinational companies are more cooperative facing accusations of discrimination, according to Yu. "After all, they don't have this discrimination in their home country," he said.
More than 80 percent of the 96 multinational companies that his center surveyed in 2008 requested the hepatitis B virus information of potential employees, Yu said.
Of the approximate 100 hepatitis B virus carriers who went to court with the NGO's help, more than half reached an agreement with their employers or potential employers in the process of the lawsuit.
"Large companies don't like the publicity that comes with a discrimination case," Yu said.
About 90 percent of court decisions favor hepatitis B carriers when Yirenping is involved. However, compensation is nominal: about 4,000 yuan in Beijing and half that in smaller cities.
"It's not enough to have the law," Yu said. "We need to tell people that the virus is not as terrifying as they imagine. Otherwise discrimination will always be there." | Street hugs
To explain the virus, hepatitis B carriers in a dozen cities have organized regular lectures. Dong said that he and his friends in the online community invited doctors and medical professors to give public lectures at least once a month at Beijing universities.
"Those who come to listen are often relatives and friends of hepatitis B carriers," he said.
Some hepatitis B carriers have taken more radical action to share their problems. Lei Chuang, a student of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, held a banner and walked along the city's major streets for three hours on a Sunday in August 2007.
His banner said: "The hepatitis B virus is transmitted through sex, blood and during the delivery of babies. It does not transmit through food or water, or at workplaces. I am a hepatitis B virus carrier. Are you worried?"
He wanted to attract local media attention, and had one of his classmates call newspapers and television stations. But no reporters came until the end of his walk.
Even his classmate who accompanied him in the walk quitted halfway as he could not bear the way passers-by stared at them.
In the next two years, he walked another 10 times in Hangzhou and also Beijing. This August he and his friends dressed up as cartoon figures and stood at the gate of Peking University, accusing the institution of discriminating against hepatitis B carriers.
His efforts paid off. He became the first in China to receive a health certificate from the authorities on September 1, although he applied only to "test the enforcement of the law," he said.
"It is time for hepatitis B virus carriers to act as a group. We have to do something to change our fate," said the 22-year-old.
ABCs of hepatitis
Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. Inflammation is the painful, red swelling that results when tissues of the body become injured or infected. Inflammation can cause organs to not work properly.
It can have many causes including the viruses A, B and C. Hepatitis A causes an acute hepatitis that almost always gets better on its own. It is easily spread from person to person, in food and water, and can infect many people at once. Hepatitis C is almost always chronic and spreads only by blood. Hepatitis B can be both a short-term illness and a chronic, ongoing illness, and is spread through blood or other body fluids in various ways. Both hepatitis A and B can be prevented by vaccination, but not Hepatitis C.
Hepatitis B is diagnosed through blood tests, which can also show if you have chronic hepatitis B or another type of hepatitis.
Anyone can get hepatitis B, but some people are at higher risk, including:
ffpeople who were born to a mother with hepatitis B
ffpeople who live with someone who has hepatitis B
ffpeople who have lived in parts of the world where hepatitis B is common
ffpeople who are exposed to blood or body fluids at work
ffpeople on hemodialysis
ffpeople who have had more than one sex partner in the last 6 months or have a history of sexually transmitted disease
ffinjection drug users
ffmen who have sex with men
You can get hepatitis B through contact with an infected persons blood, semen, or other body fluid.
You cannot get hepatitis B from
ffshaking hands with an infected person
ffhugging an infected person
ffsitting next to an infected person
Source: US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Source: Global Times
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Increased hepatitis vaccination in China would save thousands of lives, hundreds of millions of dollars, Stanford study shows