More than 80,000 dead or missing in China quake

By Chris Buckley

YINGXIU, China (Reuters) - More than 80,000 people are dead or missing from China's worst earthquake in decades, the government said on Thursday, as concerns rose that disease, the rainy season and aftershocks could bring yet more pain.

Previously, authorities had said they expected the final death toll to exceed 50,000.

Ten days after the magnitude 7.9 quake rocked the mountainous southwest of the country, relief efforts focused on the 5 million homeless and the millions of others facing disease and possible "secondary disasters".

The government implored the international community to provide more relief aid, saying they needed more than 3 million tents and that just 400,000 had so far reached the disaster zone.

As a measure of the urgency, Chinese President Hu Jintao made a personal visit to tent producers in the wealthy eastern province of Zhejiang to chivvy them on.

"To have enough tents is an urgent task for us," Hu said.

Hospitals in Sichuan province were overwhelmed by the nearly 300,000 hurt, prompting the government to send extra trains to ferry the injured to other parts of the country, state media said. Convoys of ambulances also carried the injured out.

Rain and aftershocks have exacerbated the dangers faced by more than 100,000 troops assisting in the relief effort.

"There have been constant aftershocks and the rainy season starts in June ... the earthquake has loosened the mountains," said Yun Xiaosu, Vice Minister of Land and Resources.

"It is very likely to cause frequent geological disasters and to once again bring major losses to the quake area."

Engineers are also monitoring more than 30 new lakes formed by landslides into river valleys, worried they could burst causing flashfloods into towns and tent cities.

PLAGUE, MENINGITIS

More than 5,000 health workers have fanned out to disinfect the hundreds of wrecked villages, and doctors and nurses are stationed round the clock in refugee camps.

"We are most worried about plague, so environmental hygiene is of top importance. Such a huge movement of people inevitably means that all sorts of viruses and bacteria move with them. We are also afraid of meningitis," a health official in Mianyang told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Plague is carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas. Meningitis, an inflammation of membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, is caused by bacteria and viruses. It can be fatal without prompt treatment.