Infectious diseases killed 1,253 people on the Chinese mainland last month, 64 more than in June, Xinhua quoted the Health Ministry as saying. A total of 15 people from Sichuan, Zhejiang, Fujiang and Jiangsu Provinces and Beijing Municipality were reported to have contracted cholera, a class A infectious disease, last month, the ministry said. All the patients have recovered. Plague and cholera are categorized as Class A infectious diseases, the most serious, under China's Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases. There were no reports of plague in the Chinese mainland in July, the ministry said. A suspected plague outbreak was reported in the western province of Qinghai on July 30. But the Ministry did not confirm it to be an outbreak of pneumonic plague until August 1. In addition, about 379,224 cases of class B infectious diseases were reported in the Chinese mainland in July, slightly down from last month's 381,000. Among them, 1,196 cases were fatal. Viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, dysentery, syphilis and gonorrhea were the top five infectious diseases in this category, accounting for 94.42 percent of all cases. Of the 294,233 cases of class C infectious diseases reported, 57 were fatal. About 95 percent of the deaths were caused by hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD), types of infectious diarrhea and mumps. Class B infectious diseases include 26 ailments such as the infectious severe acute respiratory syndrome, and Class C includes 10 diseases, such as influenza.
