Species level identification of non-tuberculous mycobacteria from South Indian BCG trial area during 1981.
Paramasivan, C.N.; Govindan, D.; Prabhakar, R.; Somasundaram, P.R.; Subbammal, S.; Tripathy, S.P.
Tubercle; 1985; 66; 9-15.
In 1981, non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) were obtained from 8.6% of 16 907 sputum specimens in a trial in the Chingleput district of Madras state to test the efficacy of BCG vaccination in the prevention of tuberculosis, but from only 0.6% of 672 autoclaved specimens cultured as part of a quality control procedure. This finding suggested that the NTM were truly derived from the sputum of the BCG trial subjects. The mycobacterial species could be identified in 966 (96.6%) of the first 1000 isolates of NTM: 54.6% were potential pathogens and 73.0% were slow growing. The species isolated most frequently were M. avium / intracellulare (22.6 % of all NTM), M. terrare (12.5%) and M. scrofulaceum (10.5%). Those species accounting for 8-5% of all NTM were M. fortuitum , M. chelonei , M. flavescens , M. gordonae and M. vaccae.
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