With the biggest threat in Tsunami-hit regions now posed by disease, Chinese rescuers in Indonesia are intensifying their relief efforts to search for, and treat, more victims of the disaster. CRI reporter Ning Yan has the details.

In a race against time, the 35 members of the Chinese medical team in the northwestern Indonesian province of Aceh are reaching out to whoever asks for help.

And to provide urgent treatment more swiftly, the team has moved medical facilities right beside helicopters.

"We treated at least 20 seriously injured patients in the morning. Now a helicopter has just brought three more patients here. One is a kid suffering from leg fractures, and the other two from trauma accompanied by fever."

Since arriving on New Year's Eve, medical experts from China have treated more than 3,000 local residents in Aceh province injured as a result of the catastrophic earthquake and Tsunamis ten days ago.

Most patients suffered foot or leg injuries as they fled the tsunamis. After being treated, they said they were lucky to have doctors and nurses from China.

"Thank you very much for your coming and we appreciate you very much for helping us here. You are great people from China. It's very far I know. But you come here and it's a good idea. Thank you."

Indonesia is the country worst hit by the devastating earthquake and ensuing Tsunamis which swept across the Indian Ocean.

In many Sumatran villages, large numbers of residents were killed by the tsunami and those who survived are facing increasing health dangers.

The Indonesian health ministry puts the country's death at 95 thousand. But this figure could still rise substantially as the ministry says there may have been as many as a hundred thousand deaths in the Aceh and North Sumatra area alone.

(CRIENGLISH.com January 5, 2005)