Medical workers in east China's Anhui Province are going all out to offer free medical care for people suffering from this summer's heavy floods in the Huaihe River valley.

The waters of the Huaihe River, which mostly flows through east China, subsided below the danger level one week ago, but the flood has left many of the 165 million people living in the river's vast valley with various kinds of diseases.

Anhui has, so far, sent more than 3,600 medical teams consisting of 6,685 people to the flooded areas to provide free treatment for 768,000 people.

"The epidemic situation is now basically stable," said Gao Kaiyan, director of the provincial health department, pointing to the fact that only some common diseases occurred, such as diarrhea and skin diseases.

A supervisory system has been set up to follow the situation in the river valley and some people have been specially designated to collect and analyze information about the diseases, he said.

Local health stations have been providing guidance on the safety of drinking water and food for people in the flooded villages and helping them disinfect their houses or tents with bleach and medicine.

As floods commonly cause many diseases, medicines are still in need in the Huaihe River valley, sources said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2003)