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Article History

Received: 17 February 2026

Accepted: 28 August 2026

First Online: 10 September 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was conducted following the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants. Institutional ethical clearance was obtained from the Ethical Review Committee of Madda Walabu University (Ref. N o : MWU/Biol/65/2015 [2015 Ethiopia calendar = 2023 Gregorian calendar]). A cooperation letter was obtained from the Madda Walabu University and handed to the medical directors. The medical directors accepted the requests and communicated to the TB unit of each health facility for data collection with the help of professional nurses. Due to the nature of the study, individual informed consent was waived by Ethical Review Committee of Madda Walabu University according to [67]. Patients were coded during data collection to ensure confidentiality and patient privacy. We also confirm that the manuscript has not been submitted for publication to any other journal.

<b>Consent for publication</b>: Not applicable.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.