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| | Definitions |
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| Category of TB patients | |
| New pulmonary bacteriologically confirmed patients | Patients never treated for TB (or treated for less than 1 month) and whose sputum is positive by smear microscopy, culture, or WHO-approved Rapid Diagnostic (such as Xpert MTB/RIF) |
| Previously treated patients | Patients have received 1 month or more of anti-TB drugs in the past |
| Relapse patients | Patients have previously been treated for TB, were declared cured or treatment completed at the end of their most recent course of treatment, and are now diagnosed with a recurrent episode of TB |
| Treatment after failure patients | Patients have previously been treated for TB and failed treatment during or at the end of their most recent treatment course |
| Treatment after loss to follow-up patients | Patients have previously been treated for TB and were declared lost to follow-up during or at the end of their most recent course of treatment |
| Other previously treated patients | Patients have previously been treated for TB but their outcome after their most recent course of treatment is unknown or undocumented |
| Patients with unknown previous TB treatment history | Patients do not fit into any of the categories listed above |
|
| Treatment outcomes | |
| Cured | A pulmonary TB patient with bacteriologically confirmed TB at the beginning of treatment who was smear- or culture-negative in the last month of treatment and on at least one previous occasion |
| Treatment completed | A TB patient who completed treatment without evidence of failure, but with no record to show that sputum smear or culture results in the last month of treatment and on at least one previous occasion were negative, either because tests were not done or because results were unavailable |
| Treatment failed | A TB patient whose sputum smear or culture is positive at month 5 or later during treatment |
| Died | A TB patient who dies for any reason before starting or during the course of treatment |
| Loss to follow-up | A TB patient who did not start treatment or whose treatment was interrupted for 2 consecutive months or more |
| Not evaluated | A TB patient for whom no treatment outcome is assigned; this includes cases “transferred out” to another treatment unit as well as cases for whom the treatment outcome is unknown to the reporting unit |
| Treatment success | The sum of cured and treatment completed |
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