Experts ensure good health for quake survivors

By Fei Lai  |   2008-7-4  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

MEDICAL and public health services provided by 260 experts from Shanghai in Dujiangyan's 19 towns are now in full swing.

"We are here with a mission to completely resume the quake-hit city's public health order by the end of the year," said Zhao Huaqiang, who is in charge of organization.

"There are four towns, namely Baisha, Daguan, Hongkou and Longchi, meeting the most severe situation. Designated medical teams are stationed there in tents to save traveling time, rather than living at the People's Hospital of Dujiangyan City in the downtown area like other teams."

Driving from Shanghai and arriving on June 29, the medical team from Zhabei District is stationed at Daguan Town's community hospital.

To offer technological aid, they brought four laptops, an overhead projector, a printer and instruments for medical use and for checking water and food quality.

All 11 members are living in two tents in the hospital's courtyard.

"On the first day here it was raining heavily outside, and it was drizzling inside the tents because the roof leaked and got our beds wet," said Zhu Yaoguo, vice director of Zhabei District's Public Health Bureau.

"We're lucky to be able to take cold water showers and have vegetables at lunch. At night we use fans to keep cool. Although it is a bit hard to adapt to the damp weather, our difficulties are trivial compared to the cause of building a sound public health environment here."

Covering an area of 63 square kilometers, Daguan has a population of 18,000. Only 10 people were killed in the quake but almost 80 percent of the town's buildings were damaged. Survivors are living in temporary houses and one of the first priorities for the team was to guarantee a safe supply of water and food.

Fan Kui, the community hospital's president, said that the local medical workers had learned a lot from the Shanghai experts.