Text messages help to prevent disease outbreak in Sichuan province

Medics and specialists are reporting the health situation in the quake zones through text messages to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an official said.

Normally this is reported through the Web-based disease sentinel surveillance and reporting system, which was established in 2003, Feng Zijian, director of the center's emergency response department, told China Daily yesterday.

However, only 12 of the system's 466 sentinel sites covering the quake zones remain in order, Ma Jiaqi, the center's information chief, said.