More investment is needed to beat tuberculosis - the joint most deadly infectious disease in the world - a coalition of health agencies has said.

TB can cause damage to the lungs

The Stop TB Partnership said it would take $56bn (£36bn) to "eliminate" the curable disease.

It said a target set by the World Health Organization (WHO) to tackle the disease by 2030 would be missed unless action was taken.

In 2014, the WHO recorded 1.5 million tuberculosis (TB) deaths.

The partnership - which includes the WHO as one of its members - said the extra funding would:

•    save more than 10 million lives

•    ensure 29 million people with TB received treatment

•    prevent 45 million people getting ill with TB

'Unacceptable'

TB is the most deadly infectious disease, alongside HIV, figures show.

But most cases of TB can be treated with first-choice antibiotics, and the WHO has called the death rate unacceptable.

Most new cases are in China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria or Pakistan.

But the UK has the highest TB rates in Western Europe, according to figures from Public Health England, with 12 cases per 100,000 people.

Last month, the London Assembly said parts of the city had higher TB rates than Rwanda or Iraq. A third of London's boroughs suffer from high rates of TB, with more than 40 incidents per 100,000 people.

Source: BBC