Evaluation of sodium hydroxide-N-acetyl-l-cysteine and 0.7% chlorhexidine decontamination methods for recovering Mycobacterium tuberculosis from sputum samples: A comparative analysis (The Gambia Experience).

Objective/background: To determine the culture yield and time to detection of mycobacterial growth between samples decontaminated using 0.7% chlorhexidine and sodium hydroxide-N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NaOH-NALC) and cultured on the Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium. We also aimed to determine the contamination rate between the 0.