This file photo taken on April 14, 2015 shows a medical doctor checking an x-ray film at a public clinic of a poor district in Lima. (AFP Photo)

ULAN BATOR, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia registered 3,779 new tuberculosis (TB) cases in 2017, of which 16.5 percent were multidrug-resistant TB, the National Cancer Center of Mongolia said Friday.

Nearly two thirds of the cases were registered in Mongolia's capital Ulan Bator, the center said in a statement before the World TB Day which falls on Saturday.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Mongolia with a population of three million is one of the seven countries with high incidence of TB in the Western Pacific Region as designated by the WHO, with a rate of around 4,000 new cases per year.

Globally, each March 24 is observed as World TB Day to raise public awareness about this disease, and step up efforts to end the global epidemic.

The date marks the day in 1882 when German physician and microbiologist Dr. Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis which causes TB, taking the first step towards diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

Tuberculosis, if not treated properly, can lead to death, and compromise respiratory or motor function depending on the affected organs like the lungs.