On a recent morning in a Ho Chi Minh City intensive-care unit, Cao Thi My Hanh sat crying and clutching her 5-month-old granddaughter, Nguyen Dang Thanh Phuong. More than a month earlier she had noticed the baby coughing and struggling to breathe. Hanh took her granddaughter to see several doctors in her rural province, but they all failed to give her a proper diagnosis. When she finally reached this large urban hospital, she found out that Phuong had tuberculosis, and realized the weeks of inadequate care had given the life-threatening illness time to take hold.

Public health officials say tuberculosis doesn’t attract nearly as much funding as HIV or malaria.