AIDS becomes China's top infectious killer

Chinese officials say AIDS was the country's leading cause of death from infectious diseases last year.

A report by China's ministry of health ranked AIDS above tuberculosis and rabies for the first time, saying it killed almost 7,000 people in the first nine months of 2008.

The ministry says the total number of HIV cases in China is now more than 260,000, nearly double the figure published three years ago.

It says more than 34,000 people have died of the disease so far.

United Nations figures estimate that 700,000 people in China were HIV-positive by the end of 2007.

The Xinhua news agency said tuberculosis was the second biggest killer in the first nine months of last year, while rabies ranked third followed by hepatitis and infant tetanus.

The country reported a one-fifth rise in syphilis last year, with a total of 257,474 cases, while gonorrhoea cases dropped by a tenth, China's health ministry said.

On Sunday, the country launched a national sex education campaign aimed at getting more people to seek treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and infertility.