Eligibility to provide sputum samples (S3, or S3 and S4) for culture testing
Collection of sputum samples for culture testing, and the number of samples requested, differed between the first 4 study communities (in which an “intensive diagnostic phase” (IDP) was conducted) and the remaining 17 “non-IDP” communities.In the 4 IDP communities, all sputum-eligible individuals who returned on “day 2” were requested to provide 1 sputum sample (S3) for culture testing. Comparison of the Xpert-Ultra and culture results in these IDP communities was used to define a subgroup of sputum-eligible individuals who would be “culture eligible” in the 17 non-IDP communities [In the 17 non-IDP communities, sputum-eligible participants who had valid Xpert-Ultra test results from both of the S1 and S2 sputum samples were classified into one of 3 categories (