... the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), mainly because of a lack of stan-dardisation.11 Further studies are requested ... slow heating until steaming, rinsing after 5 min, destaining with 25% sulfuric acid, rinsing, counterstaining with methylene blue 0.3% for 1 min, rinsing and drying.13 The re-mainder of the ... site, the aspect of the sputum and the delay between sampling and analysis. Gains in positivity were greater at the Attapeu site, on blood-containing specimens and when delays before analy-sis...