Inventory study of non-tuberculous mycobacteria in the European Union

• Published in: BMC infectious diseases Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 62
• Main Authors: van der Werf, Marieke J, Ködmön, Csaba, Katalinić-Janković, Vera, Kummik, Tiina, Soini, Hanna, Richter, Elvira, Papaventsis, Dimitrios, Tortoli, Enrico, Perrin, Monique, van Soolingen, Dick, Zolnir-Dovč, Manca, Ostergaard Thomsen, Vibeke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 06.02.2014; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Bacterial infections; Epidemiology; Europe - epidemiology; European Union; Health aspects; Humans; Infectious diseases; Methods; Mycobacterium avium; Mycobacterium Infections - epidemiology; Mycobacterium Infections - microbiology; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria - classification; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria - genetics; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria - isolation & purification; Prevalence; Germany
• ISSN: 1471-2334; 1471-2334
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2334-14-62

Since non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) disease is not notifiable in most European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) countries, the epidemiological situation of the >150 NTM species is largely unknown. We aimed to collect data on the frequency of NTM detection and NTM species types in EU/EEA countries. Officially nominated national tuberculosis reference laboratories of all EU/EEA countries were asked to provide information on: laboratory routines for detection and identification of NTM, including drug sensitivity testing (DST) methods; data on the number and type of NTM species identified; coverage and completeness of the provided data on NTM; type and number of human specimens tested for NTM; and number of specimens tested for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and NTM. This information was summarized and the main results are described. In total, 99 different NTM species were identified with M. avium, M. gordonae, M. xenopi , M. intracellulare, and M. fortuitum identified most frequently. Seven percent of the NTM species could not be identified. NTM was cultured from between 0.4-2.0% of the specimens (data from four countries). The laboratories use culturing methods optimised for M. tuberculosis complex. Identification is mainly carried out by a commercial line probe assay supplemented with sequencing. Most laboratories carried out DST for rapid growers and only at the explicit clinical request for slow growers. It is likely that the prevalence of NTM is underestimated because diagnostic procedures are not optimized specifically for NTM and isolates may not be referred to the national reference laboratory for identification. Due to the diagnostic challenges and the need to establish the clinical relevance of NTM, we recommend that countries should concentrate detection and identification in only few laboratories.