Rabies killed more people in China than any other infectious disease for the sixth consecutive month in November, the Ministry of Health said yesterday.

There were 270 deaths caused by rabies last month out of 743 deaths because of infectious disease on the Chinese mainland, according to the Ministry of Health. In all, 354 people were reportedly bitten by rabid animals, the ministry said.

Rabies has topped the list of the most deadly infectious disease since June, before that, tuberculosis was No 1. In November tuberculosis was the second-ranked killer, followed by AIDS and hepatitis B, ministry figures showed.

China ranks second in the world, after India, in the number of reported cases of rabies, sources said.

Every year more than 50,000 people around the world die of the disease, most of them from developing countries.

At the monthly press conference yesterday, the ministry also vowed to strengthen supervision over medical advertisements.

China has revised its regulations in an attempt to stop false and misleading advertising.

The new regulations, which will take effect from next month, will ban any exaggeration of effects of medical treatments.

According to the new rules, an advertisement may have only the following information: name of the medical institution, its address and phone number, speciality and qualification, type of ownership, number of beds and operating hours.

The new regulations also increased the penalty for violations. In some cases, medical institutions may be suspended or have their licences revoked.

The Ministry of Health required various levels of authorities to tighten up examining medical advertisements.

Statistics show that the medical industry was the sixth-largest spender on advertising last year, spending 7.6 billion yuan (US$970 million).

(China Daily December 12, 2006)