China rules out post-quake epidemics
ANXIAN, China (Reuters) - Chinese medical teams have fannedout across the earthquake zone, disinfecting makeshift campsand educating survivors, and on Monday the Health Ministry saidit could guarantee there would be no epidemics.
Where bodies could not be cremated, they had been burieddeep underground and far from water sources to preventcontamination, ministry spokesman Mao Qunan said.
"Theoretically, when there is a large movement of people,the risk increases for the spread of transmittable diseases,"he said on a webcast on central government website www.gov.cn.
"...We have the ability and the confidence to guaranteethere will be no epidemics after the disaster."
China has mobilised its military to unblock roads, clearrubble and deliver food, water and tents to millions displacedby the May 12 earthquake. Rescuers are racing to clear lakesand set up housing before the summer rainy season begins.
As of June 1, officials said the earthquake had killed morethan 69,000 people, with nearly 19,000 missing and around368,500 injured, Xinhua said.
A tent city has sprung up in Anxian, just off a main roadrunning through mountain fields of corn and watermelons.
Pre-fabricated houses are going up, as they are elsewhere,to provide a more long-term shelter away from the stifling heatof leaky tents.
The people, mostly farmers and from Chaping, very near theepicentre of the quake, have nothing to do.
Zhang Zhaohua, 24, sat in her tent with her 22-month-oldboy and said the adults could stand the heat and the unusualdiet of instant noodles, served morning and night.
"It's fine for us, but not for the little ones," she said.
SEARCH CONTINUES
Chinese rescuers continued their search for a militaryhelicopter carrying injured quake survivors that crashed inheavy fog on Saturday.
On board were 14 survivors and medical workers and fivecrew.
The earthquake has gripped China, unleashing a flood ofdonations and volunteers to help in relief work.
Troops withdrew from a dangerous "quake lake" formed by amassive landslide at Tangjiashan after clearing a channel forwater to flow out from behind the blockage. The water had risento within seven metres of the lowest point of the unstablenatural dam by this weekend, threatening downstreamcommunities.
Trucks trundled across Sichuan with materials forpre-fabricated housing.
In Yingxiu, dynamite was being used to clear rubble andunsafe buildings. Workers vigorously sprayed disinfectant asovercast and muggy weather settled in.
"As time goes by, the major killers of inpatients aremultiple organ failure and complicated drug-resistantinfection, instead of crush syndrome and acute renal failure inearly periods after the quake," ministry spokesman Mao said.
He said that deep burial of the dead in Sichuan had been"scientifically handled" and water sources would not becontaminated.
President Hu Jintao travelled to the southeast corner ofGansu Province, where towns along the fault line were alsoheavily damaged. He visited a Pakistani medical team, one ofseveral foreign teams doing relief work in China.
(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Writing by NickMacfie; Editing by Valerie Lee)