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As the search for survivors continues, the next major task is to prevent disease and epidemics in quake-hit areas of Sichuan, officials said on Monday.

Seven-year-old Wang Yuntian is treated by doctor Chai Yuan for injuries suffered in Saturday's deadly earthquake in Longmen township, Sichuan province. Efforts in the quake zone have shifted to keeping survivors healthy. [Photo/ China Daily]

"We should avert major public health challenges, particularly major epidemics in the affected areas," Shen Ji, health chief of the province, said at a news conference.

Shen said a system for reporting infectious diseases will soon be established to beef up epidemic surveillance in areas hit by Saturday's magnitude-7 quake centered in Ya'an.

He Xiong, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said epidemic prevention specialists are working in, or heading to, the quake zone.

He, the leader of an anti-epidemic team of about 30 experts, said the team will start working in Lushan county on Tuesday.

Infectious disease prevention efforts mainly target makeshift shelters, He said, usually where there is a high density of people but living conditions are poor.

"We'll first carry out risk assessments for the main factors, including safe and clean water and food surveillance, basic public health conditions, insects that might spread disease to humans, and waste disposal around the shelters," he said.

Based on the assessments, targeted measures such as routine disinfection and emergency vaccination programs will be introduced, he said.

Strengthened epidemic surveillance has to be performed, particularly for problems like intestinal infections and insect-borne diseases, he said.

The team is the second committed to epidemic prevention and control to be dispatched by the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

The first, comprising experts from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, arrived in Ya'an on Sunday night.

In the meantime, routine disinfection work has already been performed in the affected areas, according Shen Ji, the Sichuan health chief.

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