China's first red cross medical team for tsunami-hit victims in
south and southeast Asian countries was formed Saturday and is
scheduled to set out next week.
The medical team was composed of 15 medical personnel in Huashan
Hospital, the only high-level medical organ directly under the
jurisdiction of the China Red Cross Society.
The hospital had sent its staff to rescue the victims of the
devastating earthquake in Tangshan City in 1976, which killed
242,000 lives, and those injured in the heavy floods in southern
China in 1998 and in the deadly SARS epidemic in 2003.
Members of the team are below the age of 50, in good health,
have rich clinical experience and speak English. They were chosen
mainly from cardiological, epidemiological, respiratory, digestive,
skeletal and surgical departments.
They are scheduled to leave for Indonesia on Jan. 11 and remain
there for a month.?
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2005)