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Volume 16, Number 10—October 2010
CME ACTIVITY - Research

Changing Epidemiology of Pulmonary Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Infections

Rachel M. ThomsonComments to Author  on behalf of the NTM working group at the Queensland TB Control CentreQueensland Mycobacterial Reference Laboratory
Author affiliation: Author affiliation: Queensland Tuberculosis Control Centre, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Main Article

Table 1

Comparison of numbers of nontuberculous mycobacteria isolates in 1999 and 2005, Queensland, Australia*

Isolates No. isolates (rate/100,000 population; 95% CI)
p value
1999 2005
Total patient isolates 517† (14.8; 13.4–14.9) 631‡ (15.8; 14.3–16.9) NS
Pulmonary 382 (10.9; 9.9–12.1) 488 (12.2; 11.1–13.3) NS
Nonpulmonary
135 (3.9; 3.4–4.2)
143 (3.6; 3.1–4.0)
NS
Speciated isolates 318 (9.1; 8.2–10.2) 544 (13.6; 12.3–14.7) <0.0000001
Pulmonary 192 (5.5; 4.5–6.6) 413 (10.2; 9.4–11.5) <0.0000001
Nonpulmonary 119 (3.4; 3.0–3.8) 131 (3.3; 2.9–3.7) NS

*CI, confidence interval; NS, not significant. Population of Queensland in 1999, 3.5 million; in 2005, 4 million.
†In 1999, more smear-negative, single-positive unspeciated isolates were captured than usual, inflating these numbers.
‡The calculated number of positive isolates in 2005 was 22.1/100,000 population, based on the observed increase in speciated isolates, assuming the proportion of isolates not referred for speciation remained constant.

Main Article

Page created: September 07, 2011
Page updated: September 07, 2011
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