More than 7,000 students from east China's Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine -- which has been hit by a hepatitis outbreak -- were able to attend the national College English Test (CET) on Saturday after strict disinfection and medical protection measures were carried out.

 

The exam risked being cancelled because 77 students and four teachers from the university have been diagnosed with hepatitis A, a highly infectious disease.

 

All those who have been diagnosed with the disease are receiving treatment in hospital. They are in a stable condition.

 

Medical experts insisted that "all students must wash their hands and clean earphones for the listening section in the test with iodine and alcohol before entering the exam room."

 

After following the procedures, the students began the test at 9 AM. on schedule.

 

Zhang Yue, the director of Jiangxi Provincial Health Department, said that experts from a medical team are keeping close watch in and outside classrooms to ensure that disinfection work is successful.

 

Zhou Ming, a student attending the test, told Xinhua that he thought such strict disinfection was necessary even if cleaning earphones with iodine "is not very convenient".

 

Zhou said the university also provided them with free disinfected pencils and erasers.

 

"We have prepared more than 7,000 sets of pencils and erasers for students to help prevent the spread of the disease," said Xiao Honghao, an official with the university's publicity office.

 

According to Zhang Yue, the provincial health department was responsible for carrying out disinfection before and during the three-hour test.

 

"Doctors have sterilized all 198 testing rooms and made students clean their hands with a solution containing two-percent iodine and 75-percent alcohol," he said.

 

"The health department asked teachers to wear plastic gloves when handing out test papers," Zhang said.

 

"The test papers will also be sterilized after the students hand them in -- by Cobalt 60 radiation, fumigation or ultraviolet (UV) rays," he added.

 

Before the test, the Wanli campus area of the university was disinfected. A female student there said that a bottle of disinfectant was given to each dormitory to shield students' living quarters from danger.

 

According to university officials, the school had considered canceling CET, a biannual English test for colleges and universities nationwide, for fear of spreading the infection,

 

"Finallly the test was held as scheduled -- as students had hoped --amidst protection efforts," said Xiao Honghao.

 

An investigation has traced the cause of the outbreak to two canteen workers, who were hepatitis A carriers, according to the health department.

 

The department said there might be more cases on campus because hepatitis A is highly infectious and its incubation period lasts 15 to 30 days.

 

Thirty-eight people in a school in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region also have hepatitis A and 30 others may have come down with the disease.

 

An initial investigation suggests contaminated drinking water is the cause of the outbreak. The first case was found on Nov. 23 and the outbreak spread on Dec. 6.

 

The students' main supply of drinking water -- a well in the junior middle school -- may have been contaminated by a drainage ditch only five meters away.

 

In August, an outbreak of hepatitis A affected 69 high school students in the same region.

 

Hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver, is caused by infectious or toxic agents and characterized by jaundice, fever, liver enlargement, and abdominal pain.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2006)