"I'm worried about the environment in Wenchuan now. Because of the constant aftershocks, the mudslides and rock collapses that may result will further exacerbate the damage. Especially the drinking water hygiene problem, for centralized water supply places, the hygiene problem will be easier to control, but decentralized drinking water, it will be difficult to control the hygiene problem." Yue Lin said.
After the earthquake, buildings in the affected areas will often collapse on a large scale, and water supply facilities will suffer serious damage, leading to the disruption of centralized water supply, while decentralized water supply and rural water supply are also subject to varying degrees of damage, such as silt and sand in the water pipes, and wrongly cracked well pipes.
Remembering the Tangshan earthquake, Yue Lin said: "It was the heat of the summer and people were in urgent need of drinking water and water. In the case of not being able to find a drinkable and suitable water source, and no water transportation tools, people had to take all kinds of unhygienic water nearby to drink, including rainwater, pit water, pond water, river water, swimming pool water, and even industrial wastewater, and so on. This resulted in a sharp rise in the incidence of intestinal infectious diseases among residents."
Water quality tests at the time showed that water sources were generally contaminated with organic pollutants, and coliform bacteria generally exceeded national health standards. This inevitably led to the early post-earthquake period, the incidence of intestinal infectious diseases increased dramatically, short-term peak incidence, such as the end of July 1976 to the end of August, the incidence of local bacillary dysentery was 9.72% to 18.6%. While the incidence rate in the same period in 1975 was only 0.13% to 11%. By analyzing the epidemiological factors, it can be concluded that this was mainly due to unhygienic drinking water. "At that time, there was a time when there was a national shortage of medicines for the treatment of intestinal diseases." Yue Lin said.
"Therefore, in the early days after the Wenchuan earthquake, the first task of health and disease prevention is to ensure a hygienic and safe supply of drinking water, especially in the hot summer, drinking water hygiene is particularly important. The management of drinking water hygiene should be strengthened as soon as possible." Yue Lin said.
Practice shows that, after rapid water quality testing, as soon as possible to grasp can be done temporary water supply source of the relevant situation (including water distribution points around the pollution and health protection, water supply structures damage, etc.), as soon as possible to determine the source of water available for drinking water, etc., undoubtedly, is the early post-earthquake emergency needs. At the same time, it is also necessary to vigorously carry out drinking water disinfection and extensive water quality hygiene supervision in order to effectively reduce the incidence of enteric infectious diseases.
"Whether decentralized or centralized water supply, the most important thing is disinfection, but also to prevent cadaverine poisoning. In order to prevent corpse alkali poisoning of drinking water, it is necessary to remove the corpses around the water source as soon as possible." Yue Lin warned.
It is urgent to properly dispose of the remains of those who died
In its efforts to prevent epidemics in the aftermath of the disaster, the government has fully recognized the importance of the issue of properly disposing of the remains of those who died. Speaking at a news conference yesterday, Gao Qiang said, "We have to work with the relevant departments to properly dispose of the bodies as soon as possible to prevent the spread of harmful bacteria due to the decomposition of the bodies." He also said the government would take full responsibility for the remains of victims in the disaster area and for the medical treatment of the injured.
According to research, the decomposition of corpses will produce gaseous substances (including hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, etc.) and liquid substances (containing mercaptans, cadaveric amines, putrescine, fecal odorant ...... and water, etc.). The polyamines therein are collectively known as cadaverine (including cadaverine, putrescine, neurontine, oxalicine, etc.), and cadaverine can cause poisoning in humans. Behind this is corpse alkali and putrefactive bacteria at the same time reproduction of staphylococcus pyogenes and salmonella produced by the toxin caused by poisoning, belong to the bacterial toxin caused by the poisoning of things.
Yue Lin said, in cleaning up the remains of the victims, may be exposed to multiple amounts of mercaptan, cadaverine and other substances. In addition to the stench, should wear a poison mask with activated carbon filtration, contact with the victims of the hand to wear gloves, pay special attention to prevent hand trauma, so as not to be stained with bacterial toxins caused by poisoning. Wash your hands carefully after cleaning the victims and before meals. In addition, the person who carries out the work of cleaning up the victims, in order to prevent the anaerobic trauma infection (such as tetanus, gas gangrene, etc.), if necessary, can be inoculated with immune serum.
Additionally, you can use lime water, black grass ash adsorption of the body's odor-containing substances, can also be used 1% of manganese dioxide mixed with wood shavings to adsorb the odor of hydrogen sulfide, but also can be sprayed with 3% to 5% of the Lysol. Practice shows that the best effect is calcium hypochlorite, calcium hydroxide and bleach mixed spray, can quickly deodorize and disinfect.
More remains should not be treated by incineration to prevent pollution of the atmosphere and prevent inhalation poisoning of the surrounding population.
"After burying the body, but also pay attention to the groundwater and local soil may cause pollution. So in extraordinary times, must remains for sanitary treatment measures." Yue Lin said.
Strengthening environmental disinfection in disaster areas
Gao Qiang said at a news conference that after a very serious natural disaster, if we do not dispose properly and are not able to carry out effective sanitary and epidemiological work, there may indeed be an epidemic of plague. This is because after a major disaster, the sanitary environment will suffer serious damage. Access to food and drinking water will face a lot of difficulties, and the psychology of the victims will also undergo great changes. If water source protection, environmental disinfection, food hygiene and infectious disease prevention and control cannot be carried out effectively, there is a possibility of bringing about the occurrence and prevalence of infectious diseases. There is a possibility of intestinal infectious diseases, respiratory infectious diseases, and some infectious diseases transmitted by viruses and bacteria, as well as infectious diseases vectored by mosquitoes and vectors. But our goal is to achieve "no major epidemic after a major disaster".
After the quake, environmental hygiene in the affected areas deteriorated dramatically, especially during the summer heat, when corpses decayed rapidly and mosquitoes and flies proliferated. The general temperature of 25 degrees Celsius conditions, flies breeding generation only takes about ten days. Surveys have shown that summer garbage piles six days after maggots, seven days into pupae. Therefore, the garbage in the disaster area must be removed at least once a week. At the same time, a variety of elimination measures must also be taken.
Facts show that after a strong earthquake, a large number of buildings collapsed, rubble can not be removed in time. And the rubble pile crevices under the extremely conducive to mosquitoes and flies breeding, but also spray disinfection of the blind spot. Under high temperature conditions, it is easy to create conditions for poisoning and the spread of infectious diseases. Therefore, the method of elimination must be careful, in-depth and at the same time using a variety of methods, that is to say, not only to spray chemicals in the surface layer of the rubble, but also must be carefully in-depth into the crevices of the rubble.
"The methods we used at that time were, on the one hand, aerial spraying by airplane over a large area, and at the same time, localized spraying on the ground by manually carrying buckets of chemicals, and careful spraying between the crevices of the rubble by individuals with small spray cans. As long as these methods of spraying are used simultaneously without interruption, the breeding of mosquitoes and flies can be completely controlled." Yue Lin described.
"In the hot summer months, to prevent food poisoning, it is important to take the time to determine whether food is edible or not. For this reason, it is not possible to wait for the results of some laboratory tests (such as bacterial cultures) that take a long time to determine whether the food is edible or not. At that time, we categorized food products based on sensory indicators (i.e., according to the four aspects of food: color, viscosity, elasticity and odor) and decided which meat products were conditionally edible." Yue Lin said.
Gao Qiang said there are many people in the affected areas who have lost their loved ones in the quake, and many who have lost their families and possessions, and that the burden of medical care should not be put on them, and that the government has a responsibility to help them enjoy better medical treatment.
He emphasized that it must not be the case that when a serious natural disaster has already caused severe losses to the people, "a serious epidemic of infectious diseases emerges due to our ineffective work, adding to the woes of the people in the affected areas."
There are no serious infectious diseases in the affected areas, according to a Ministry of Health briefing yesterday.
At present, the first priority is to do a good job in the affected areas of drinking water and food hygiene and safety protection, to prevent the emergence of food-borne diseases; the implementation of some targeted disinfection, sterilization work in the affected areas, to prevent the emergence of infectious diseases due to a number of viruses or bacteria; targeted injection of vaccines for the people in the affected areas, to prevent the spread of certain diseases effectively. In conjunction with the relevant departments to properly dispose of corpses as soon as possible to prevent the spread of harmful bacteria due to the decay of corpses; to strengthen the monitoring of epidemics, the emergence of infectious diseases should be implemented strict isolation and control measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases; engaged in the prevention of epidemics also need to pay attention to their own dietary hygiene and health.
But the most urgent thing is still the disinfection supplies, which have been urgently transferred to the national reserve for disinfection and epidemic prevention of medicine is not much, only 5,000 bottles. Medical teams dispatched to the disaster area by provinces and cities to participate in health relief have brought a large number of disinfection supplies with them. According to Gao Qiang, these disinfectant medicines are still far from enough. Because of the health epidemic prevention is a long time process, but also need a large number of health disinfection supplies, epidemic prevention drugs constantly sent to the disaster area.