Crowds, not corpses, the real health risk, WHO official says

How survivors are managed, rather than how the dead are handled, determines whether epidemics break out in the wake of major natural disasters, World Health Organization Representative to China Hans Troedsson said.

Caring for the dead is not a primary health responsibility in those areas of Sichuan devastated by last week's earthquake, he said, refuting the misconception that corpses constitute a major source of disease.

"There is no public health threat from dead bodies," he said.