The Chinese Ministry of Health said Thursday that 1,475 people died and 756,689 cases were reported of 22 types of regularly monitored infectious diseases in the first quarter of this year.

Among the 27 types of infectious diseases under the ministry's regular surveillance, the five absent ones in the first quarter were plague, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, SARS and human infection of high pathogenic bird flu, the Ministry said in a report.

The five most prevalent diseases were tuberculosis, hepatitis B, gonorrhea, dysentery and measles. They accounted for 86.57 percent of the total incidences.

The top five most deadly diseases were tuberculosis, rabies, hepatitis B, AIDS and epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, which caused 82.64 percent of deaths, the report said.

Infectious diseases in China are classified into three categories by the country's law on prevention of communicable diseases. Among the three categories, the first two categories included 27 types of disease in the ministry's regular surveillance report.

(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2005)