“B Type Hepatitis, Contagious?“

The government plans to examine the measure to levy sanctions on companies that restrict the employment of carriers of hepatitis. Companies have not employed hepatitis carriers even though hepatitis B was excluded from the disease category of employment restriction because it is not contagious in daily life.

In 1998, domestic hepatitis B carriers (over age 10) numbered 11.6 million, and carriers in their 20s seeking jobs were 452,000.

According to the Ministry of Labor and the National Institute of Health on the 7th, the government changed hepatitis B from the contagious disease category no.1 to preventable no. 2 and extracted it from the diseases which restrict employment in October 2000, but companies do not employ carriers in practice.

The Ministry of Labor, therefore, decided to order the labor supervisors to intensify the administrative monitoring of companies of over 50 workers not to discriminate against hepatitis B carriers for employment through the industrial safety and health guidance that will soon be distributed to the local Labor Offices.

The Ministry of Labor sees the declarative regulation of the current the Infectious Diseases Prevention Act which forbids the disadvantage of employment for the patients of infectious diseases as being ineffective, and is seeking measures to strengthen the regulation by consulting with the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The Ministry of Labor plans to censure companies that violate the revised regulations of employment discrimination prohibition in the employment policy act.

It will also request hepatitis B carriers to submit complaints to the Human Rights Commission which will call for a corrective measure in the companies.

According to the Ministry of Labor, Mr. Park (27), who will graduate from local A college in February, overcame the difficulties of job shortage and worked for a middle standing company for 2 weeks. But after a medical exam which revealed that he was carrying the hepatitis B virus, he could not help but quit the job due to pressure from the company.

The National Institute of Health criticized, "Hepatitis B is not contagious and cannot infect others by shaking hands and sharing utensils. Companies should take it as something similar to high blood pressure and glucosuria."

Jin Lee leej@donga.com