Table 3.

Definition of treatment outcome of newly treated smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis in National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) of Japan and WHO

Outcome	NTP of Japan	WHO
Cure	A patient who was culture-negative in the last month of treatment and on at least two previous occasion	A patient who was sputum smear-negative in the last month of treatment and on at least one previous occasion
Completed	A patient who completed treatment but did not have a negative sputum smear or culture result after 5 month treatment	A patient who completed treatment but did not meet the criteria for cure or failure
Died	A patient who died from any reason during treatment.	A patient who died from any cause during treatment
Failed	A patient whose sputum smear or culture was positive at 5 months or later during treatment.	A patient who has remained sputum smear-positive at month 5 or later during treatment.
Default	A patient whose treatment was interrupted for 2 consecutive months or more, or shorter than 6 or 9 month treatment	A patient whose treatment was interrupted for 2 consecutive months or more.
Transferred out	A patient who has been transferred to another PHC’s area	Not defined
Treatment for more than 12 months	Treatment for more than 12 months	Not defined
Not evaluated	Death without treatment, no information on initial treatment regime, unused both INH and RFP at the onset of treatment, or interruption of INH or RFP	A patient whose treatment outcome is not known.
Treatment success	Sum of cured and completed treatments	Sum of cured and completed treatments

The differences in standards of judgment between Japan and the WHO.

1 The bacteriological situation is confirmed not by sputum smear result, but by culture result in Japan.

2 WHO definition of "not evaluated" is "a patient whose treatment outcome is not known".

3 Because this long treatment period is common in Japan, "treatment for more than 12 months" was added to the Japanese definition.