A medical worker (R) from east China's
Zhejiang Province examines a local man at Qinggang Village, Gucheng Town,
Pingwu County, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, on May 23, 2008.
Large numbers of medical workers have arrived at local villages in the
quake-hit area in Sichuan Province to provide medical treatment and health
services. (Xinhua Photo) Photo
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BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A Ministry of Health
spokesman said here Monday that there had been no major epidemics or public
health incidents in the quake-hit areas of southwestern Sichuan Province.
Mao Qun'an said in an online interview with netizens
at the central government's www.gov.cn that if there is an outbreak of disease,
it will be publicized promptly and transparently.
He said the ministry and the provincial government
have been open with all monitoring reports concerning epidemics in the quake
zone.
Mao said that deep burial of earthquake victims in
Sichuan had been "scientifically handled" and would not contaminate water
sources. Quarantine task forces dug deep pits and sterilized the victims' bodies
before burial.
The 8.0-magnitude quake on May 12 claimed at least
69,019 lives, left 18,627 missing, injured 373,573 and displaced 15 million
people as of Monday noon, official statistics show.
Mao said the ministry had done its utmost to prevent
water sources, particularly those for drinking, from possible contamination.
He said that 10,015 people injured during the massive
earthquake have been transferred to hospitals outside Sichuan.
More than 5,000 medical professionals were mobilized
from Beijing, Shanghai, Liaoning and many other provinces.
The injured were immediately transported to 340
better-equipped hospitals in those provinces, Mao said. Sichuan does not have
enough medical resources to accommodate all the injured.
"As time goes by, the major killers of in-patients
are multiple organ failure and complicated drug-resistant infections, in
comparison with the crush injuries and acute renal failure commonly seen in
early periods after the quake," Mao said.
The ministry sent expert teams to hospitals to
oversee and offer advice on treatment for patients under intensive care, the
spokesman said.
He pointed out that the few hand-foot-mouth disease
(HFMD) cases that occurred recently in the quake-hit areas have been brought
under control.
"The Ministry of Health has required that HFMD cases
must be reported since May 2 this year," said Mao. "Any HFMD case in the
quake-hit areas will be reported immediately through our system."
Some relief workers had experienced rashes as a
result of poor personal sanitary conditions. "However, things will improve, as
we immediately delivered the necessary medicine to them," he said.
The ministry had purchased up to 220 million yuan
(some 31.7 million U.S. dollars) worth of medical products for areas hit hard by
the earthquake.
Some 1,898 tons of disinfectants have been delivered
to quake areas, Mao said.
The health system has organized 139,642 medical
workers for earthquake relief, 91,298 of whom are in Sichuan Province, according
to Mao.
Most medical workers at the relief work front now are
physicians and skin disease experts, instead of mainly surgeons as in the early
period after the quake, he said.
The ministry has sent more than 200 psychologists and
medical workers to carry out counseling in Sichuan.
BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) -- No epidemic outbreak or
medical emergencies were reported in China's quake-battered zone as of Tuesday
noon, according to a Ministry of Health (MOH) official here.
The quake-affected regions saw an increase in
symptoms such as diarrhea and fever, but no major epidemic or medical
emergencies were found, Qi Xiaoqiu, director of the Department of Disease
Control under the MOH, said at an Information Office of the State Council press
conference. Full Story
BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of
Health on Sunday said no disease outbreaks or emergency public health incidents
had been reported by midnight on Saturday in areas affected by the deadly
earthquake which struck southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 12.
A total of 5,850 medical staff and 550 ambulances
were dispatched by the ministry, and had reached all affected townships in the
quake zone. Full Story
