Rabies claimed 201 more lives last month, and remained the most fatal infectious disease in China, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday.

Apart from March when tuberculosis (TB) killed more people, rabies has topped the deadliest infectious disease list for the last 13 months. Even though China has nearly 5 million TB patients, the death rate of rabies is much higher.

Accounting for about 46 percent of all infectious disease fatalities, rabies killed more than 2,000 people in China last year. Only TB killed more people.

Rabies kills about 50,000 people across the world each year. To curb the deadly disease, authorities around the country have enforced strict dog control regulations.

Beijing, for instance, launched a massive campaign against unregistered dogs last summer. Such dogs are rarely vaccinated but account for about half of the 1 million canines in the city.

Thousands of dogs have been killed, and potentially dangerous dogs or those taller than 35 cm have been banned as pets.

Several Beijing districts have already imposed a "one-family, one-dog" policy. Nanjing, capital of the East China's Jiangsu Province, is planning to follow Beijing's example.

Source: China Daily