The move has caused controversy among those who say the ban goes against the youngsters' rights.

The pupils were told to go home in the city of Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"I am in a desperate situation now; no school is willing to accept me with a drop-out paper in my hand," one student called Xiaoxiao told the Beijing News on Monday.

The 13-year-old boy was in the first grade of junior high at Urumqi No 15 Middle School six weeks ago. The school told him to return to his village three weeks later because he "carried the Hepatitis-B virus."

Mao Qun'an, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, blasted the decision to ban the pupils.

"This is prejudice. All these students can go to school unless they are sick enough to be hospitalized."

The Hepatitis-B virus, like the HIV virus, is mainly transmitted through sexual contact and blood.

It cannot be spread through food or water, sharing eating utensils, breastfeeding, hugging, kissing, coughing, sneezing or by casual contact.

China is believed to have more than 120 million Hepatitis-B virus carriers.

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