Mycobacterial Infections, Atypical

Overview :

Mycobacteria are a group of rod-shaped bacteria that cause several diseases, among them leprosy and tuberculosis. For some time, scientists have known of bacteria that are similar to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of tuberculosis, but that grow and act differently. When tuberculosis was a much more widespread problem and microbiology was much less able to tell the difference between similar microbes, these atypical mycobacteria were ignored. Today, they have been classified more precisely as members of the same species and called atypical (or nontuberculosis) mycobacteria.

Although the medical profession has known about these atypical infections for a long time, they were not considered a serious problem until the early 1980s. It was then that many of these atypical infections were noticed among homosexuals and intravenous drug users in New York City. These bacteria rarely cause infection in humans other than those with HIV or AIDS.