China is facing huge tuberculosis (TB) intervention challenges, particularly with the multi-drug-resistant TB, Minister of Health Chen Zhu says.

About 120,000 new cases of multi-drug-resistant TB are diagnosed in the country every year. That's 25 percent of the world's total, government figures show.

Chen warned insufficient intervention will seriously burden families and the government, and could upset social stability.

Multi-drug-resistant TB can be cured by long-term treatments using second-line drugs, which are more expensive than first-line drugs and have more adverse side effects, experts say.

The mortality rate is up to 80 percent. The ministry pledges to increase diagnosis and treatment coverage to 50 percent by 2015, Chen says.

China Daily - Reuters