China helps Nepal build post-quake epidemic prevention team

A disease surveillance and prevention course jointly organized by China and Nepal concluded on Monday, with 34 Nepalese military medical trainees learning skills to better cope with post-quake emergencies in the Himalayan nation.

The five-day course, provided by the China Medical Team in association with Nepal Army Medical Corps, aims to help the medics understand basic concepts of post-disaster public health emergency response, which focuses on water, food, sanitation, vectors, symptom surveillance of infectious diseases and health promotion.

Through field practice, the training, held at a government college in Kathmandu, demonstrated to the trainees - Nepalese military nurses, nursing and health assistants - the essential surveying and sampling techniques.

On behalf of the Nepalese side, Lt. Col. Suman Raj Dongol, a doctor at Nepal's Army Hospital, expressed his gratitude to China for providing the training, which is expected to be a boost for the quake-stricken Nepal.

"After the earthquake struck, our major concern is an epidemic outbreak. The Chinese government sent its China Medical Team promptly to Nepal to prevent the outbreak," Dongol, who studied at a medical university in Beijing in the 1990s, told Xinhua.

As of Monday, 8,046 people were killed and 17,866 others injured in the 7.9-magnitude quake that rocked Nepal on April 25, the government said. Now post-quake disease prevention is becoming a challenge to Nepal.

Lu Lin, leader of China Medical Team, said Nepal's epidemic prevention capabilities were quite limited before the quake.

"By completing the course to train 34 local trainees, Nepal now has an epidemic prevention team that will stay," Lu said, referring to a number of foreign aid teams that have already started leaving the country after relief missions. Endi