About 536 tuberculosis patients had been detected in the Kurunegala District during 2009, Dr. Saman Kularathne of the Chest Clinic in Kurunegala told the media at the North Western Province Health Ministry.

Dr. Kularathne said that the disease was fast spreading in developing countries and the main cause was poverty.

He said every year, 8 to 10 per cent of the world population contracted TB and nearly two million died of the disease annually. Although Sri Lanka was well equipped to TB patients, the incidence of the disease was increasing.

The Kurunegala District had the largest number of laboratories to conduct necessary tests to detect TB and the people should undergo tests if they had the slightest doubt that they had contracted the disease, Dr. Kularatne said.