Health ministers from 27 countries dealing with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases will be in Beijing for a meeting next week.

They will talk about how to increase prevention and management of MDR-TB, as well as draft a five-year strategic plan, Liu Yuhong, a program officer for the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.

WHO is a sponsor of the three day meeting, which begins April 1, along with China's Ministry of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is developed by inconsistent or partial treatment when patients take medicines irregularly, WHO sources said.

According to WHO web statistics, an estimated 1.4 million TB cases occur in China annually. About 600,000 TB patients are infectious. It's not clear how many people in China die every year from the disease or how many MDR-TB cases there are in the country.

TB is contagious. Like the common cold, it spreads through the air. Only people who are sick with TB in their lungs are infectious.

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2009)