Hyogo institute launches 5-yr health checks of Sichuan quake victims

KOBE, Jan. 5 Kyodo -
An institute at the University of Hyogo has launched a five-year program to
check the health of some 2,000 survivors of a major earthquake that hit China's
Sichuan Province in May, institute officials said Monday.
The Research Institute of Nursing Care for People and Community began the
program in December as the first of its kind since no such follow-up surveys
have ever been conducted on numerous victims suffering from a large-scale
disaster, they said.
The survey will be conducted at shelters in Chengdu, capital of quake-hit
Sichuan Province, and mountain-ringed regions near the city, under the help of
local medical institutions.
The survivors will be asked questions in eight areas, including their health
conditions, whether they are prepared for another possible disaster, the extent
of damage they suffered in the May quake, and their physical and mental
conditions after the quake.
Japanese researchers will visit the site on occasions such as summarizing or
analyzing the survey.
''Collecting background information over a long period of time has an important
meaning,'' said Aiko Yamamoto, a professor at the research institute.
Yamamoto added that she also hopes to help nurture professional disaster nurses
through the survey.
The survey was conceived as the Japanese institute formed friendships with
Chinese medical institutions after the Japanese institute made public in
Chinese its knowledge of disaster nursing on its website after the May
earthquake.
Some 69,000 people were killed and about 18,000 went missing in the quake.
Hyogo Prefecture, meanwhile, was hardest hit by the 1995 Great Hanshin
Earthquake that claimed the lives of more than 6,400 people.
==Kyodo
2009-01-05 22:08:29