China says faces tough health job in quake region

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese health authorities face a tough job to prevent disease outbreaks in areas hard hit by May 12's massive earthquake, but are confident they can stop large-scale epidemics, officials said on Tuesday.

The 7.9 magnitude quake which struck the southwestern province of Sichuan killed more than 67,000 people, and left some five million homeless just at the start of the normally sweltering summer.

At least 20,000 are still missing, many suspected of being buried in rubble, which could worsen the health situation.

To head off an epidemic, the government has dispatched more than 90,000 health workers to Sichuan, disinfected huge areas and rushed vaccines for cholera and rabies, among other diseases, to the scene, the health ministry said in a statement.

The disaster also destroyed a large part of Sichuan's health monitoring system, although there have yet to be reports of epidemics from teams sent in to plug this hole.

"At present, the earthquake disaster relief situation is still serious, and the health and epidemic prevention tasks are very arduous," ministry spokesman Sun Jiahai told a news conference.

The sheer scale of the problem, coupled with the warming weather, could exacerbate the health issues, added Qi Xiaoqiu, head of the ministry's disease control bureau.

"Now we are in the period when diseases spread during the summer, and even in normal times, the numbers of outbreaks would be high," he said.

"Added to that damage from the earthquake, which has caused a worsening of hygiene and living conditions and a drop in the quality of life. So it's easier for diseases to spread," Qi said.

Doctors had noticed cases of fever and diarrhea, but so far nothing to suggest a big outbreak of any major disease, he said.

Teams of health workers had been sent into villages with solar-powered mobile telephones to report any signs of epidemics to ensure that outbreaks get reported promptly despite the damage to Sichuan's health infrastructure, Qi added.

"We have confidence that through our hard work we can ensure that there are no epidemics during this great disaster," he said.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Valerie Lee)