Employers in China flout laws which ban the testing of employees for hepatitis B

A hospital in Guandong province in China has been found guilty of passing on to employers the results of more than 1000 blood tests for hepatitis B, carried out on job applicants and employees as part of their annual health checks. Neither the employees nor the job applicants were told that they were going to be tested for hepatitis B and neither group was given the results.

The Guangzhou Public Health Bureau moved against the hospital, the Hospital of the First Engineering Bureau of the Guangdong Provincial Electric Power Bureau, after more than 1500 hepatitis B carriers petitioned it in January. The bureau suspended the hospital’s licence to provide physical examination services for one month.

Most companies will not offer employment to hepatitis B carriers and employees who are found to be carriers are likely to lose their jobs.

The hospital was the first …