Funding is gratefully acknowledged from: the Wellcome Trust (awards 057434/Z/99/Z, 070005/Z/02/Z, 078340/Z/05/Z, 105788/Z/14/Z, and 201251/Z/16/Z); UK-AID DFID-CSCF; the Joint Global Health Trials Scheme (award MR/K007467/1) with funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the UK Medical Research Council, the UK Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and Wellcome; the STOP TB partnership's TB REACH initiative funded by the Government of Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (awards W5_PER_CDT1_PRISMA and OPP1118545); CONCYTEC/FONDECYT award code E067-2020-02-01 number 083-2020; and the charity IFHAD: Innovation For Health And Development.

Introduction: Cough is a key symptom of tuberculosis (TB) as well as the main cause of transmission. However, a recent literature review found that cough frequency (number of coughs per hour) in patients with TB has only been studied once, in 1969. The main aim of this study is to describe cough frequency patterns before and after the start of TB treatment and to determine baseline factors that affect cough frequency in these patients. Secondarily, we will evaluate the correlation between cough frequency and TB microbiological resolution. Methods: This study will select participants with culture confirmed TB from 2 tertiary hospitals in Lima, Peru. We estimated that a sample size of 107 patients was sufficient to detect clinically significant changes in cough frequency. Participants will initially be evaluated through questionnaires, radiology, microscopic observation drug susceptibility...