WELLINGTON, March 22 (Xinhua) -- It is estimated tuberculosis (TB) has infected 50 percent of Papua New Guinea's population and it is spreading.

    The daily local newspaper Post Courier reported Thursday the World Health organization (WHO) in Papua New Guinea (PNG) said the spread of tuberculosis is under-reported and it's likely that more than the estimated 50 percent of its 500,000 population is infected with the disease.

    The Global Fund has agreed to give PNG 20 million U.S. dollars for the next five years to help in it its fight against TB.

    The technical assistant for the WHO's tuberculosis control program, Iraingo Moses, said the five-year strategy will help monitoring and improve evaluation as most Centers treat TB don't report it.

    She said the strategy should also ensure quality diagnosis and regular drug supplies, helping with direct observation treatments and the government's commitment to placing medical resources in regional areas.

    PNG is the world's most diverse country, with more than 700 native tongues. Some 80 percent of the people live in rural areas with few or no facilities. Many tribes in the isolated mountainous interior have little contact with each other, let alone with the outside world, and live within a non-monetarized economy, dependent on subsistence agriculture.

    Moses said the funding will expand WHO's TB program to parts of the country that aren't being treated.

    "This money should help us get our coverage up to around 80 percent of the population and help us to detect more than 70 percent of all new smear positive cases and also help us get our cure rate well above 85 percent," said Moses.