The Ministry of Health announced Wednesday that a surveillance report on the communicable diseases on the Chinese mainland will be reported to the public on a monthly basis.

The ministry started the new practice Wednesday by publicizing two reports containing detailed figures on communicable diseases that were reported in 2003 and the first month of 2004.

"Monthly, quarterly and annual epidemic reports will be publicized in the Health Ministry's official bulletin and website," said Mao Qunan, the ministry's spokesman.

"The Health ministry will also authorize major media to release the information or hold press conferences if necessary," he said.

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 diseases should be reported according to law, which include cholera, viral hepatitis, severe acute respiratory syndrome and AIDS.

Mao said to ensure a timely and accurate reporting, China has set up a direct reporting network.

Twenty-nine out of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the Chinese mainland are able to carry out real-time reporting on the infectious diseases or public health emergencies from the local health agencies to China's national Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), he said.

Local CDCs check the data reported every day and ensure its accuracy and then deliver them to the National CDC at the beginning of each month, Mao said.

"The national CDC will then deliver the data to the Health Ministry within the first ten days of each month and the Health Ministry will publicize the information timely," he said.

According to the two reports released on Wednesday, 173 people on the Chinese mainland died of infectious diseases in the first month of 2004, dropping 17.62 percent compared with the same period of last year.

Viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, bacillary and amoebicdysentery and syphilis were the top five prevalent infectious diseases in January 2004, accounting for 93.82 percent of the total number of reported cases.

In 2003, over 2.5 million people were sickened with infectious diseases on the Chinese mainland, among whom 6,474 people died, according to the reports.

(Xinhua News Agency February 12, 2004)