Acetic Acid Enables Molecular Enumeration of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from Sputum and Eliminates the Need for a Biosafety Level 3 Laboratory.

READ-TB is an improved version of the MBLA and is available to be adopted by clinical microbiology laboratories as a tool for tuberculosis treatment monitoring. READ-TB will have a particular impact in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for laboratories with no BSL-3 laboratory and for clinical trials testing new combinations of anti-tuberculosis drugs.