A total of 3,241 people were killed by 27 kinds of infectious diseases in the country's 902,018 infection cases in China in the final quarter of last year, said the Ministry of Health here Wednesday.

Of all the infectious diseases, only poliomyelitis, diphtheria and contagious severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) did not cause any infections or deaths.

The top five most infectious diseases were tuberculosis, hepatitis B, bacterial and amebic dysenteries, gonorrhea and lues, which accounted for 87.39 percent of all cases. The top five most fatal diseases were tuberculosis, hydrophobia, AIDS, hepatitis B and hemorrhage, which accounted for 91.24 percent of total deaths.

China also reported 309 cerebrospinal meningitis cases and 25 people who died from the disease last quarter, down by a small margin from that in the same period of 2004.

Source: Xinhua