Nepal Faces Risk of Epidemic Outbreaks, Intestinal Diseases: Chinese Experts

Nepal has been devastated by a massive earthquake on April, 25, 2015. While the evacuation process is still in progress, a Chinese government medical team has released an evaluation report on the public health risk of the Nepal earthquake. The report states that the quake-hit areas face a high possibility of epidemic outbreaks, and a very high risk of intestinal diseases.

The 59-member Chinese medic group includes experts in public hygiene, infectious diseases, traumatology, orthopedics and emergency treatment, all from Yunnan province. More than 85% of the team members have earthquake-relief experience.

Lu Lin, head of the medical team, said, "We tested 51 items, according to the standards of the World Health Organization."

Deputy head Zhang Rong said, "I am worried about the high epidemic risk in the quake-hit areas. Nepal has not yet established an epidemic situation reporting mechanism and it has been difficult to collect and analyze epidemic information. Chinese experts are training local medical personnel as best as they can. More than 600 Nepalese medical personnel have been trained to join the epidemic control campaigns in the quake-hit areas."

Source: Medindia