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Health new priority for quake zone

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Medicine needed

Residents of Lushan urgently need antibiotics to treat alimentary and respiratory infections, said emergency doctors in the county.

Rescuers carry 94-year-old Chen Guizhen to a safe area in Lushan county's Qinglongchang village, Sichuan province, on Monday. The village was one of the areas hit hardest by the magnitude-7 earthquake on Saturday. [Photo/ China Daily]

"Victims have access to only instant noodles, bread and cold water, which has led to many cases of alimentary tract infections," said Fu Xuetao, a local pharmacist. "Also, it's easy for them to catch cold, staying overnight in the tent in the rain. The cases we have discovered include cough and pneumonia."

Rain fell on Sunday night in the areas surrounding Lushan and Baoxing counties.

Tang Weige, president of the 42nd Hospital of Chengdu Military Command, which sent a medical team to the quake zone, said colds may be prevalent in the days to come.

"People were very nervous for the first three days after the quake, but that enhanced their immunity. Their level of immunity will drop greatly on the fourth day when they feel relaxed, and many will get colds or even fevers," he said. "That was the case in the Wenchuan earthquake five years ago."

The Sichuan health department has prepared medicine to treat 30,000 people for colds.

Rescuers are racing against time in the search for survivors. On Monday, more than 300 soldiers from Chengdu Military Command searched villages in Lushan, the epicenter of the quake.

Almost all houses in Hexing village were damaged, which added difficulty to carrying out rescue work, especially with the constant aftershocks.

"The walls of these houses are fragile and they may collapse at a touch," said Wu Luzheng, who is in charge of rescue in the village.

"Besides the rescue, we also help villagers move valuable property out of their houses," he said.

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