BEIJING - A total of 1,478 people died from infectious diseases in the Chinese mainland in September, with AIDS the top cause of death, according to figures released by a health authority on Friday.

AIDS killed 1,084 people last month, according to a National Health and Family Planning Commission statement.

Tuberculosis was the second-biggest killer, claiming 161 lives. Rabies was the third major killer, with 128 deaths.

A total of 597,843 infectious disease cases were reported in the mainland last month, the statement said.

Among them, 11 cases of cholera were reported but none of them resulted in death. Plague and cholera are categorized as Class A infectious diseases, the most serious.

In addition, 300,391 cases were identified as Class B. Hepatitis, tuberculosis, syphilis, dysentery and gonorrhea accounted for 95 percent of cases in this category, the statement said.

It added that category C infectious diseases claimed 20 lives last month, with foot-and-mouth disease, infectious diarrhea and mumps reported the most frequently.