Papua New Guinea has been ranked among ten countries with the worst tuberculosis incidence in a new report.
Photo: 123RF
The World Health Organisation's Global Tuberculosis Report 2018 says the global TB incidence rate is falling by roughly 2 percent a year.
However, some parts of the world are experiencing a crisis of multidrug-resistant TB, in particular China and India.
PNG is also struggling to contain multidrug-resistant TB, and is identified as being among ten countries with the highest TB burden based on incidence per capita.
In 2017, according to the WHO report, PNG had just under 28,000 notified cases of TB, in a population of 8.3 million people.
An estimated 3.4 percent of the country's tuberculosis cases have multidrug-resistant TB.
The WHO said tuberculosis remains the world's top infectious killer for a fourth year in a row.
It has warned countries against complacency in dealing with the disease.
