Epidemics threaten China as floodwaters spread<\/p>\n
BEIJING (AFP): China's Health Minister Zhang Wenkang warned of
\nepidemics as raging floodwaters from the northeastern Nenjiang
\nriver wiped out the third line of dikes protecting the country's
\nmost important oilfield, state media reported yesterday.<\/p>\n
Zhang said widespread flooding across huge areas of central
\nChina's Yangtze river basin and in the far northeast this summer
\nthreatened a mass outbreak of the water-borne snail fever, or
\nschistosomiasis.<\/p>\n
The threat of all kinds of epidemics in the wake of the flood
\ndisaster, which has already affected one-fifth of China's
\npopulation, will worsen in the next three months, he was quoted
\nby the official Xinhua news agency as saying.<\/p>\n
About 400 cases of the debilitating parasitic disease had been
\nreported in Inner Mongolia as well as in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi,
\nHeilongjiang, Anhui, Jiangsu and Jilin provinces, the minister
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
But experts fear many more may already be infected as snail
\nfever has a symptomless latent period of 40 days.<\/p>\n
River snails carry the parasite, which enters the body through
\nthe skin of people standing or swimming in water. Untold millions
\nof troops and civilians who have been wading while helping to
\nsandbag dikes and carry out rescue work are at risk.<\/p>\n
Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia, kills some 200,000
\npeople worldwide each year. It gradually worsens over years if
\nuntreated, causing urinary bleeding and eventual kidney failure.<\/p>\n
Insanitary conditions, exposure and a shortage of medicine
\namong millions of flood evacuees had mainly caused dysentery,
\nhepatitis and colds, the minister said.<\/p>\n
The official media admitted earlier this month, however, that
\ncases of deadly typhoid and cholera had already appeared in the
\nnortheast.<\/p>\n
The official People's Daily reported that uncontrollable
\ntorrents from the Nenjiang river late on Friday ruptured the
\nthird set of emergency embankments thrown up in a desperate
\nattempt to save the giant Daqing oilfield and its nearby city.<\/p>\n
Some 700 oil wells were in danger following the disaster and
\ntens of thousands of People's Liberation Army troops were rushing
\nto erect a fourth line of defense 20 kilometers back -- this time
\nwithin the limits of Daqing city itself, newspaper reports said.
\nDaqing alone accounted for one-half of China's onshore oil
\nproduction last year.<\/p>\n
Some 1,443 wells were already inundated by rising waters, and
\nstate television earlier reported that daily production had
\nfallen by 11,000 tons per day, or about 6 percent.<\/p>\n
At least 2,000 people have been killed in this year's
\nflooding, according to the most recent government toll released
\non Aug.6.<\/p>\n
Record-high waters on the northeastern Songhua river meanwhile
\nkept Harbin city's nine million residents on top alert yesterday
\nand showed no signs of relenting.<\/p>\n
The People's Daily said a \"serious\" leak appeared at a dike in
\nthe city center on Saturday but was brought under control by 1,
\n000 troops who rushed in for emergency repairs. More than one
\nmillion army personnel and civilians continued to reinforce dikes
\nalready stacked high with sandbags, it said.<\/p>",
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