China's Health Ministry said Thursday in Beijing that tuberculosis retained the highest incidence rate in May on the Chinese mainland among all reported infectious diseases, and rabies remained the top killer.

Tuberculosis, hepatitis B, dysentery, gonorrhea and measles were the top five most common diseases, the ministry said in a monthly surveillance report released Thursday. Rabies, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and AIDS were the major causes of death, the ministry said.

The ministry said rabies also had the highest death rate among the communicable diseases on the Chinese mainland, followed by AIDS, infant tetanus and epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis.

Infectious diseases in China are classified into three categories by the country's law on prevention of communicable diseases.

Among the three categories, 27 types of disease are included in the ministry's regular surveillance report.

The ministry said a total of 303,281 cases of infectious diseases were reported during the last month on the Chinese mainland with 477 deaths.

Source: Xinhua