A Chinese health official said Friday that China will take new steps to protect the privacy of hepatitis B virus(HBV) carriers.

"We will make detailed regulations to prevent the carrier's personal information from being leaked," Hao Yang, a vice director at the Health Ministry, said in an interview on the central government website.

All medical service providers should keep HBV carrier information private, Hao urged, saying that current regulations need to be reinforced.

China's current laws and regulations on prevention of infectious diseases set out punishments for hospitals and medical personnel who deliberately leak private information about infectious disease patients or virus carriers.

HBV carriers and patients are often discriminated against in university enrolment, employment and in their daily lives.

Some Chinese medical experts reckon that as many as one tenth of the Chinese population, about 130 million, are HBV carriers, but the Health Ministry has remained silent on the topic.

According to the World Health Organization, hepatitis B is preventable with safe and effective vaccines that have been available since 1982.

In many developing countries, people are infected with HBV during childhood, and eight to ten percent of people in the general population become chronically infected.

HBV is transmitted by contact with blood or body fluids of an infected person in the same way as HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

China's newly issued regulations on the prevention of AIDS sets out concrete measures for hospitals and supervisors, Hao said, adding that similar measures should be instituted for HBV.