Adding Another Piece to the Puzzle of Why NTM Infections Are Relatively Uncommon despite Their Ubiquitous Nature

Abstract

Since nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are pervasive in the environment and NTM infections are relatively uncommon, underlying hereditary or acquired host susceptibility factors should be sought for in most NTM-infected patients. To facilitate identification of underlying risk factors, it is useful to classify NTM disease into skin-soft tissue infections, isolated NTM lung disease, and extrapulmonary viscera-disseminated disease because the latter two categories have unique sets of underlying host risk factors.