Drug-resistant tuberculosis cases in parts of the former Soviet Union have reached the highest rates ever recorded globally, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. The rates could soar even higher, spreading the potentially fatal disease elsewhere, a top W.H.O. official said, releasing findings from the largest global survey of the problem.

The highest rate was in Baku, Azerbaijan, where 22.3 percent of new tuberculosis cases were resistant to the standard anti-TB drug regimen during the survey period, from 2002 to 2006. That exceeded the previous high of 14.2 percent, in Kazakhstan.

Drug-resistant TB is widespread in the Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang regions of China, where the rates are about 7.25 percent, the W.H.O. said.

The survey, the first in four years, shows that earlier predictions were correct and that governments have lost control of tuberculosis in many areas. The reason, health officials say, is that countries have not invested enough to build, equip and staff laboratories to detect the disease. The countries also have not made sure there are enough standard drugs and have not monitored patients to ensure they complete a full course of therapy.