Medical experts are warning people to be more aware of hepatitis B, a disease that directly and indirectly afflicts more than 300,000 Chinese each year.

The warning was made last week by 10 infectious disease experts, members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, attending a medical forum in East China's Zhejiang Province to discuss prevention and control of the infectious disease.

At present, it's estimated that 120 million Chinese are carrying the hepatitis B virus, of whom 20 per cent will develop into hepatitis B patients, said Li Lanjuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

According to these experts, it is hard to prevent and control hepatitis B at present.

The hepatitis B vaccine shows no effect on about 5 per cent of its receivers, and the medicine being used can not kill the virus completely, they said.

The experts said with painstaking efforts the rate of hepatitis B virus carriers among the total population could decrease from the current 9.7 per cent to 5 per cent in 2010.

The Chinese Foundation for Hepatitis Prevention and Control has invited Andy Lau, famous singer and movie star from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, who is also a hepatitis B virus carrier, to be the publicity ambassador for the prevention and control of the disease.

The Ministry of Health has begun a year-long nationwide survey of the hepatitis B situation, in order to update data and guidelines on prevention and control of the disease.

The survey, to run from September 2006 to September 2007, involves collecting blood serum samples from 79,000 residents from both cities and the countryside, aged 1 to 59, conducting lab tests, filing archives and making reports for future control plans.