The death toll from China's devastating earthquake rose by 1,278 to 41,353 as of noon on Wednesday, according to the Information Office of the State Council.

Another 274,683 people were injured and there were still 32,666 missing in the aftermath of the 8.0-magnitude quake that hit southwestern Sichuan Province on May 12.

With the increasing number of deaths and the coming summer, the quake disaster regions are facing mounting pressure to prevent epidemics though no epidemic outbreak or serious mass health accident had been reported yet.

Thousands of medical workers are on the scene. Medical teams with about 45,000 members were working in all quake-hit counties and townships in Sichuan as of Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Health.

Among them there were more than 5,200 people in charge of epidemic prevention, and about 1,196 tonnes of disinfectants and bactericides were distributed, the ministry said in a statement.

In seven out of the 11 worst-hit counties, sanitation work has been fully implemented and in the other four, one third of the townships have been covered.

According to local health departments, doctors found 58 cases of gas gangrene, a bacterial infection that produces gas within gangrenous tissues, as of Sunday. But officials said the cases were not epidemic and will not affect people without open wounds.

Meanwhile, rescuers are still fighting time to find survivors.

According to the Department of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, rescuers saved and evacuated 396,811 people from the quake-hit areas to safe places as of Wednesday noon, about 36,000 more than the figure by Monday midnight.

A total of 6,452 survivors have been dug out from the rubble since the rescue task started and 77 were rescued in the past 36 hours.

The Ministry of Health said that 3,424 people injured in the quake had died in hospitals as of Wednesday noon.

The hospitals have taken in 59,394 injured people since the quake. By noon on Wednesday, 30,289 people had recovered and been discharged while 25,681 were still being treated, the ministry said.

Power had been restored in most parts of quake-hit areas but Beichuan County, one of the worst hit ones, remained blacked out and Hongyuan had seen its electricity cut off again due to aftershocks, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission said in a statement.

Roads damaged in the quake totaled 28,829 kilometers, and 19,645 km had been repaired and reopened to traffic as of Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2008)