BEIJING -- A total of 16,744 people died as a result of infectious diseases on the Chinese mainland in 2015, according to official data revealed on Thursday.

In 2015, there were more than 6.4 million cases of infectious diseases reported on the mainland, said the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Of the total, 13 cases of cholera, categorized as a Class A infectious disease under China's Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, were reported with no deaths.

More than three million cases were classified as Class B infectious diseases, which resulted in 16,584 deaths. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, rabies, hepatitis, and human infection of H7N9 avian influenza accounted for 98.55 percent of deaths in this category.