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Cholera spreads across Hainan

“A lot of taxi drivers do not want to join the strike, but they are worried their cars will be smashed up so they don’t dare go to work.” — ‘Huang,’ taxi driver

An outbreak of cholera in Hainan has spread to the province’s capital Haikou, forcing the quarantine of a local university.

Seven students at Hainan University in Haikou had been diagnosed with cholera, bringing total cases in the province to 51, financial magazine Caijing said on its Web site, citing the provincial health bureau.

More than 70 other students were in hospital with stomach ailments and the university had barred “outside personnel” from entering and students from leaving, the report said.

The school had also closed canteens and examined food workers, Caijing said.

Cholera is transmitted by contaminated water or food. At its most acute, it causes diarrhea that can lead to death by severe dehydration and kidney failure.

Calls to the provincial health bureau went unanswered.

An employee reached at the university by telephone said the number of students affected had been reported to the health bureau, but declined to comment further.

State media citing health authorities reported 30 cases on Friday, and nearly 300 suspected cases, but said the outbreak was confined to one municipal region. No deaths have been reported.

Authorities had traced the outbreak to a village dinner party and blamed heavy rains and floods last month for creating ripe conditions for cholera.

The provincial health bureau ordered officials to step up checks for intestinal diseases in a notice posted on its Web site yesterday.

“Overcome carelessness and blind optimism, improve vigilance and make good preparations ahead of time,” the notice said.

STRIKE

Meanwhile, taxi drivers smashed car windows and police vehicles as they went on strike in one of China’s biggest cities yesterday, state press said, in a rare bout of industrial action for the communist country.

Thousands of taxi drivers in Chongqing City were striking over high operating costs, shortages of natural gas and high traffic fines, the People’s Daily said on its Web site.

They were also unhappy over the government’s lack of efforts at reining in unlicensed taxi operators who were stealing fares away, the report said.

As the strike began early yesterday, taxi drivers smashed the windows of cars belonging to colleagues who tried to cross picket lines, and passengers were pulled out of those vehicles, Xinhua news agency said.

At least 20 vehicles, including three police cars, were smashed, Xinhua said.

“A lot of taxi drivers do not want to join the strike, but they are worried their cars will be smashed up so they don’t dare go to work,” Xinhua quoted a driver named Huang as saying.

A dispatch operator at the Chongqing Taxi Company confirmed taxi drivers were on strike, but said her company was trying to operate as usual.

She declined to be named, saying she was not allowed to speak to media.

Thousands were left stranded during the morning rush hour when taxi cabs were absent from the city’s crowded streets and people could not find transport to work or to the airport and train station, Chinese media said.

The Chongqing City Government held an emergency meeting yesterday morning to address the strikers’ demands, the People’s Daily said.

Chongqing has 16,000 licensed cabs, Xinhua said, with about 9,000 operating in the city’s urban areas.

Chongqing, one of China’s four provincial-level municipalities, has a population of about 31 million people, with just over 5 million living in the urban district.

Strikes are rare in China, where union activity is strictly controlled by the Communist Party.

Employees in any industry are only allowed to belong to the party-controlled All China Federation of Trade Unions.
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