Abstract
Background: A worldwide increase in prevalence of Non tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) infection has been observed over the past decades. There is no evidence of human-to-human transmission and human disease may be acquired from environmental exposures.
Aim: We started a survey to identify NTM in sputa from patients from the Respiratory wards of S. Camillo-Forlanini Hospital in Rome and to test NTM presence in the hospital water supply network .
Methods: From January 2011 to December 2014 sputa were collected from each individual referred to the respiratory wards and tested for Mycobacterium presence . Positive samples were examined by INNO-Lipa Mycobacteria v2 assay for subtypes identification.Samples from respiratory wards tap water and showers were also collected .
Results: Sputa analysis confirmed an increase in NTM infection: in 2011 27.5% of 190 acid fast bacilli (AFB) positive patients were NTM positive NTM, while in 2013 we observed 240 AFB positive patients 60% positive for NTM (p<0.0001).
Survey on the water supply network of the Respiratory Department pointed out a significant NTM presence.In 2014, following water decontamination a significant decrease of NTM presence in respiratory wards pipeline was observed and only 3.5 % of 209 positive sputa were positive for NTM (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: We showed a NTM increase in sputa from respiratory wards patients associated with NTM hospital water pipeline contamination.These findings are important because NTM infection of patients with lung diseases may be life-threatening. We believe that prompt water network surveys and decontamination should be taken to reduce this source of infection.
- Copyright ©ERS 2015