Damage or Loss to Health Care Facilities in Disaster Areas of Floods in 2002 and
Need for International Assistance for Relief and Disease Prevention
Chinese Ministry of Health
August 23, 2002
China is among the countries where natural disasters occur frequently. During
June and July this year, continuous heavy rainfalls occurred in Southwest, Northwest and
Southern regions of the country, resulting in flooding in 24 provinces (including provincial level jurisdictions) which have affected more than 100 million people. The size of the affected population and the total area of crops affected reached the maximum level since 1990s. Repeated heavy rainfalls occurred in Shaanxi, Hunan, Sichuan,
Chongqing, Guangxi, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guizhou, and Xinjiang, leading to repeated damage and even more losses. It was reported that the death toll reached 1,000, 1,778,000 persons have been urgently transferred to temporary shelters, and direct economic loss reached over 30 billion yuans.
Health systems also suffered heavy losses. According to incomplete statistics from 12 provincial level jurisdictions, Shaanxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangxi,
Hubei, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Fujian, and Gansu, 1,444 medical and public health facilities suffered heavy losses. Collapsed buildings measured at totally 316,115 square meters. Buildings at risk of collapse increased by 128,404 square meters. 2,499 sets of large equipment were damaged or lost. Loss of medicine and vaccines is estimated at 38,153,200 yuans. In total, the direct loss to the health care system reached
278 million yuans. The basic infrastructure of the primary health care facilities suffered tremendous damage and loss, severely affecting medical care of victims, public health and disease prevention.
Following the disasters, under the leadership of various levels of governments,
Ministry of Health together with health authorities of disaster areas promptly launched effective relief and disease prevention efforts. Living environments have been cleaned up and disinfected in a timely manner following the floods. Those who were wounded received timely and effective care and support. Various measures for public health and disease prevention have been implemented. So far, no occurrence of major epidemics has been reported.
This year, the flooding disaster in China occurred earlier, affected larger areas, and resulted in tremendous losses. In addition to severe damage and loss to the health care systems of the flooded areas, the task of disease prevention following the floods will also be extremely significant. In spite of huge human, material and financial resources provided by various levels of governments and health authorities for relief and disease prevention, due to the fact that severe consequences of flooding on environment and ecology usually occur in a rather long period of time after the flooding, much more extensive efforts are needed to enhance surveillance for communicable diseases, to strengthen monitoring and inspection of water supplies, food, and environments, to

perform health education, disinfection, and pest and rodent control, and to prevent the occurrence of major epidemics of communicable diseases following the disasters so as to protect the health and safety of the population. The areas that suffered the heaviest losses are mostly located in the Western provinces including Shaanxi, Xinjiang, Sichuan,
Chongqing, Guizhou, and Guangxi as well as in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi. These areas are under-developed economically. Furthermore, epidemics of enteric communicable diseases, endemic communicable diseases, and vector-borne viral diseases occur more severely in these areas. Therefore, the task of disease prevention in these areas will be even more challenging while shortage of resources will be more remarkable. It is hoped that the World Health Organization can provide financial support that can be used mostly to purchase chemicals for disinfection and pest and rodent control, to enhance surveillance of major communicable diseases in this and next year, to carry out public awareness campaign for knowledge of sanitation and disease prevention and for health education, and to conduct comprehensive prevention and control activities for communicable diseases following disasters in provinces that suffered the most severe flooding. Due to the huge losses and damages to transportation vehicles of the primary health and disease prevention facilities, any assistance in anti-epidemic vehicles will be very much appreciated.
Attachments:
1.
Statistics of losses to health systems in some provinces (incomplete statistics)
2.
Need for specific assistance in disease prevention following flooding in major disaster provinces
August 2002

Annex 1
Loss to Health Systems in Some Affected Provinces (Incomplete Statistics)
Province Number of
Affected
Institutes
Building
Collapsed
(m
2
)
Building
Severely
Damaged
(m 2 )
Lost or
Damaged
Large
Equipment
Medicine or
Vaccines
Needed (X
1,000 yuans)
Shaanxi 130 96537
(set or piece)
462 3865
Sichuan 380
Chongqing 95
Guizhou
Hubei
14631
36000
5412
25000
91206
18800
564
180
210
6400
7418.2
5600
Ningxia
Xinjiang
Fujian
Gansu
Hunan
Guangxi
Jiangxi
Total
34
40
544
221
1444
6400
4935
12000
110000
5200
316115
13188
5210
128404
20
41
862
160
2499
2220
11620
1030
38153.2

Annex 2
Province
Shaanxi
Sichuan
Chongqing
Xinjiang
Guizhou
Guangxi
Hunan
Hubei
Jiangxi
Subtotal
Need for Specific Assistance in Disease Prevention following Flooding in Major Disaster Provinces
Purchase of
Chemicals and
Equipment for
Disinfection and
Pest and Rodent
Control (yuans)
200,000
200,000
200,000
100,000
150,000
100,000
200,000
200,000
200,000
1,555,000
Surveillance for
Major
Communicable
Diseases in 2002 and 2003 (yuans)
250,000
250,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
250,000
250,000
2,050,000
Health Education and Public Health
Awareness
Campaigns for
Sanitation and
Disease Prevention
(yuans)
80,000
80,000
80,000
50,000
50,000
50,000
100,000
100,000
100,000
690,000
Total
530,000
530,000
530,000
350,000
350,000
350,000
550,000
550,000
550,000
4,290,000
Number of Vehicles for Disease
Prevention (antiepidemic vehicles)
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
18