Pulmonary infections with nontuberculous mycobacteria on the rise globally

Written By : Jacinthlyn Sylvia |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2022-10-20T20:00:22+05:30 | Updated On 20 Oct 2022 8:00 PM IST

A recent review published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, most of the studies revealed overall increase in pulmonary nontuberculus mycobacteria (NTM) globally for both infection and disease.

To describe in detail the global trends of pulmonary nontuberculus mycobacteria infection and disease Victor Naestholt Dahl carried forward this extensive review. Culture-based NTM data and other studies reporting on pulmonary NTM infection and/or disease over time was included in this systematic review.

According to the use of guideline-based criteria for disease which was collected, infection was defined as the absence of symptoms and radiological findings that is compatible with NTM pulmonary disease. Using linear regressions and corresponding pooled estimates the trends of change for incidence/prevalence of NTM were calculated.

The highlights of this review article were:

Most of the studies included in the review reported increasing pulmonary NTM infection (82.1%) and disease (66.7%) in the recent past.
The annual rate of change per 1,00,000 persons/year for NTM infection was 4·0% while for NTM disease was and 4·1%.
The overall annual change for absolute NTM infection and disease numbers was 2·0 and 0·5, respectively.
In Mycobacterium avium, an increasing trend was also seen for complex infection (n=15/19, 78·9%) and disease (n= 10/12, 83·9%).
An increasing trend for Mycobacterium abscessus complex (n=15/23, 65·2%) infection (n=11/17, 64·7%) but less so for disease (n=2/8, 25·0%).

In conclusion, the findings of this review has increasingly recognized that NTM as important opportunistic pathogens. Most of the studies report an increasing trend of pulmonary NTM infection and disease but the data on the NTM trends are mostly limited to its geographical representation. Further evidence via research is required to explain this global increase trend.

Reference:

Dahl, V. N., Mølhave, M., Fløe, A., van Ingen, P. J., Schön, P. T., Lillebaek, P. T., Andersen, P. A. B., & Wejse, P. C. (2022). Global trends of pulmonary infections with nontuberculous mycobacteria: a systematic review. In International Journal of Infectious Diseases. Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.10.013

nontuberculus mycobacteriapulmonary infectionsInternational Journal of Infectious Diseases

Source : International Journal of Infectious Diseases

Jacinthlyn Sylvia

Neuroscience Masters graduate

Jacinthlyn Sylvia, a Neuroscience Master's graduate from Chennai has worked extensively in deciphering the neurobiology of cognition and motor control in aging. She also has spread-out exposure to Neurosurgery from her Bachelor’s. She is currently involved in active Neuro-Oncology research. She is an upcoming neuroscientist with a fiery passion for writing. Her news cover at Medical Dialogues feature recent discoveries and updates from the healthcare and biomedical research fields. She can be reached at editorial@medicaldialogues.in

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751