China dispatches health team to Myanmar to assist in post-disaster epidemic prevention

A 50-member Chinese health team departed for Myanmar on Saturday to assist with post-disaster epidemic prevention following a 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck the country in March.

Assembled at Myanmar's request as part of China's expanded humanitarian aid announced on April 10, the team includes 12 members from Beijing and 38 medical experts from Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Equipped with emergency medical supplies and equipment, the team will focus on mitigating disease risks in quake-affected regions.

They will operate primarily in Mandalay, one of the hardest-hit areas, implementing disease prevention and control measures. Their tasks include infectious disease risk assessment, epidemiological surveillance, laboratory testing, environmental disinfection, vector control, drinking water safety inspection, public health education, and technical training for local personnel.

The team includes experts from the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration (NDCPA) and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Chen Lei, deputy director of the NDCPA's emergency response department and leader of the mission, said the earthquake severely damaged public health infrastructure, and that extreme heat and torrential rains have exacerbated outbreaks of cholera, measles, dengue fever, and malaria.

The earthquake struck Myanmar on March 28, claiming 3,726 lives and injuring 5,105 people, with 129 others still unaccounted for as of April 18, according to official data cited on Saturday.

China dispatches health team to Myanmar to assist in post-disaster epidemic prevention

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight