According to the National Statistics Office, the number of reported cases of infectious diseases in Mongolia in the first three quarters of this year fell by 8 percent from the same period in 2017.

There were some 31,100 cases of infectious diseases reported from January to September.

The number of people who tested positive for HIV rose to 266 in the country which has a population of 3.2 million, after a new case was registered in September in the capital Ulaanbaatar.

The number of cases of smallpox and foot and mouth disease dropped by 50.1 percent and 30.5 percent, respectively, making them the main contributors to the drop.