Tuberculosis (TB), with an estimated incidence of 10 million people every year (range 8.9–11.0 million), is a major cause of ill health and one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Until the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, TB was the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, ranking above HIV, with an estimated 1.2 million TB deaths among people who are HIV-negative (range, 1.1–1.3 million), and an additional 208 000 deaths among people who are HIV-positive (range, 177 000– 242 000).
Adverse event: Any untoward medical occurrence that may present in a person with tuberculosis (TB) during treatment with a pharmaceutical product but that does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the treatment.
Bacteriologically confirmed TB case: A case from whom a biological specimen is positive by smear microscopy, culture or a World Health Organization (WHO) recommended rapid diagnostic (e.g. Xpert® MTB/RIF).
The production and writing of this document, WHO operational handbook on tuberculosis Module 4: Treatment – drug-susceptible tuberculosis treatment, was coordinated by Fuad Mirzayev, with the support of Medea Gegia and Linh Nguyen, under the guidance of Matteo Zignol and the overall direction of Tereza Kasaeva, Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Programme (WHO/GTB). Significant input to finalize the document was provided by Giovanni Battista Migliori, WHO Collaborating Centre for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases; Fondazione S.
