Tuberculosis, which killed an estimated 1.7 million people last year, can be cured in six months if detected and treated early, says the World Health Organisation.

Most of the people who die to the deadly disease are adults in Africa and Asia, said the agency in its report "Global Tuberculosis Control 2010" Around 9.4 million new TB cases were detected last year, including 1.1 million among those who were infected with the HIV virus. Most of the victims with both HIV and TB were in sub-Saharan Africa.

There are still 1.7 million deaths every year from a disease that is perfectly curable in 2010," Mario Raviglione, director of WHO's Stop TB Department said. TB can be treated effectively with proper dosage of antibiotics.

"In terms of treatment, possibly in the next 2-3 years, we will have for the first time I would say since the 1970s, two or three compounds that are effective against multi-drug resistant TB. So this will give us an extra weapon," Raviglione said.