The Ministry of Health says earthquake-hit areas in Sichuan are free of infectious epidemics. Contagious diseases now found in the province include diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A and B, mumps and tuberculosis. But these have occurred only in individual cases. The rate of infectious diseases in the quake zone remains on a level with the same period last year.

More than half a million people have been vaccinated against hepatitis A and B. Local health authorities have intensified efforts to monitor water and food quality in the temporary shelters. The government is also warning of the potential for plague infection carried by rats following the draining of barrier lakes formed by the quake.

(CCTV.com June 16, 2008)