The struggle to combat one of the world’s deadliest diseases, tuberculosis, it’s a fight that appears to be an uphill battle, according to a new report by the World Health Organization.

Tuberculosis is caused by a bacteria, and is highly contagious. It mostly attacks the lungs, but can spread elsewhere in the body. It can turn fatal, without proper-and-swift treatment. That’s a major obstacle many countries face. And it’s prompting one global agency to warn the world, it must act immediately.

CCTV America’s Frances Kuo reports. 

The grim image of tuberculosis now made grimmer by a new report by the world health organization.

“It shows that things are worse than what we had anticipated,” Emory University Global Health Dept. Prof Kenneth Castro said.

The WHO said last year 1.8 million people worldwide died from the disease, up by 20 percent from earlier estimates. The prognosis is a setback to the goal of the United Nations: to cut worldwide TB deaths from 2015 to 2030 by 90 percent and overall TB cases by 80 percent.

One stubborn challenge drug-resistant TB. The WHO reports only one in five who need treatment is getting it. But treatment can be costly and leaves with side effects, requiring constant monitoring.

Unlike diseases like Malaria, TB is not confined to mostly poor countries. The WHO said six nations account for 60 percent of the world’s TB cases, India has the most, followed by Indonesia and China. Though governments provide most of TB funding, the countries often struggle for additional resources.

Mario C. Raviglione on the WHO’s tuberculosis report

For more about the World Health Organization’s tuberculosis report, CCTV America’s Liu Xin interviewed WHO Global TB Programme Director, Mario C. Raviglione.