Tibet sent a second medical team on Sunday to the quake-stricken area of neighboring Sichuan Province, where it will help with epidemic prevention.

The team of 16 people brought 500,000 yuan (US$71,428.6) worth of drugs and equipment, in addition to three vehicles, said Bai Jianbin, head of the team.

They will work in hard-hit Maoxian County, which is about 50 kilometers northeast of Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the 8.0-magnitude earthquake on May 12, Bai said.

The quake left 2,144 people known dead, 8,183 injured and 3,598 missing in Maoxian.

In Sichuan overall, the death toll has surpassed 60,000; nationwide, it stands at 62,664. As of Sunday noon, another 358,816 people were listed as injured and 23,775 remained missing.

The first medical team from Tibet, with 25 people, was dispatched on May 16 and is still treating injured people, said Purbu Zhoi'ma, director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Department of Health.

Local authorities also donated 345,000 yuan worth of Tibetan medicine and other supplies valued at more than 13.2 million yuan, the official said.

No epidemics have been reported in Maoxian, but there was a severe shortage of sterilization medicine, said Shun Chisheng, director of the disease control center of Maoxian, on Sunday.

"More than 100 epidemic-control professionals are working in all of the 22 townships in the county. We have appealed for air drops of medicine to some villages whose road links are cut," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2008)