Table 3. Definitions of treatment outcomes for patients with drug-susceptible tuberculosis.

Outcome	Definition
Cure	A bacteriologically confirmed TB patient at the beginning of treatment who was found to be 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 the tests were not done or because the results are unavailable
Treatment failure	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
Lost to follow-up	A TB patient who did not start treatment or whose treatment was interrupted for two consecutive months or more
Not evaluated	A TB patient for whom no treatment outcome is assigned; this includes patients “transferred-out” to another treatment unit as well as patients for whom the treatment outcome is unknown to the reporting unit
Treatment success	The sum of cured and treatment completed

TB, tuberculosis. Adapted from reference 28.