More than 4.6 million epidemic cases were reported and 10,726 people died of epidemics on the Chinese mainland in 2006, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Tuberculosis, hepatitis B, diarrhea, syphilis and gonorrhea accounted for more than 85 percent of the diseases reported, while 88 percent of the people who died were victims of tuberculosis, rabies, AIDS, hepatitis B, and cerebrospinal meningitis, said an MOH report.

No pandemic broke out last year but regional epidemics were found, according to the report, citing the outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis in Guizhou, measles in Jilin, Heilongjiang and Hainan, typhoid in Yunnan and Xinjiang, and malaria in Anhui and Henan.

No incidences of SARS or poliomyelitis were found in 2006, it said.

But the number of malaria cases rose 50.9 percent and cerebrospinal meningitis cases went up 49.1 percent.

Hepatitis C cases increased by 32.8 percent, while syphilis cases were up 31.6 percent. Respiratory diseases and intestinal diseases were down 11 percent and 8 percent respectively.

Eight people died of avian flu out of the 12 cases reported in nine provinces and autonomous regions last year, said the report.

There were 1,119,976 reported cases of less severe illnesses, such as dysentery, mumps, influenza, rubella, and conjunctivitis, resulting in 103 deaths.

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2007)