Mexico quakes: 39 people still hospitalised

Mexico City, Oct 15 (IANS) A total of 39 people remain hospitalised, 11 of them in serious condition, following the September earthquakes in Mexico, the Health Secretariat said."According to the latest report from the health sector, today there are 39 patients hospitalised, of whom 11 are in serious condition," the ministry said in a statement on Saturday, Efe news reported.

In the areas hit hardest by the quakes of September, such as Mexico City, Chiapas, Morelos, Oaxaca and Puebla, medical attention has been provided to the population on 210,913 occasions.

Of those, 158,656 were related to doctor's visits, urgent care and hospitalisations, while 52,257 involved psychological treatment."Though the areas affected suffered damages to some medical facilities, they had what it took to serve the needs of the situation, and today close to 98 percent of them are operating normally," the statement said.

Since the quakes began, all public, private and social health institutions have been working together, with a total of more than 31,000 doctors, paramedics, nurses, psychologists and other support personnel on duty, the text said.

Campaigns have also been carried out for the detection, prevention and control of diseases with visits to more than 434,000 homes and over 1,600 inns, hotels and warehouses."As a result of this work of epidemiological detection, control of vectors and protection against health risks, up to now there have been no outbreaks of contagious diseases in the areas affected by the earthquake," the Health Secretariat said.

In the quakes of September 7, 19 and 23, 471 people died in the biggest natural tragedy in Mexico since the earthquake of 1985, which left at least 20,000 people dead in the nation's capital alone.