"%" symbol does not get passed from php into flash

Hello, i have a php file which generates an out put of this
Code:
Material0=10043&Family0=2&Colour0=2&Colour20=0&Style0=3&Description0=100% Superfine Cotton - Classic White

However, for some reason the “%” symbol is deleted when adding it to a textbox in flash, like this:

Code:
trace(evt.target.parent.desc)
//result = 100Superfine Cotton - Classic White
descriptions.descr.text = evt.target.parent.desc

my php declares the variable like this:
Description$count=".utf8_encode($row[Description])."&"

Does anyone know how to solve this? I need the % symbol in a lot of other examples…