Prevalence and Drug Resistance of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria, Northern China, 2008–2011

To the Editor: Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), defined as members of Mycobacterium species other than those in the M. tuberculosis complex or M. leprae, are mostly considered to be opportunistic pathogens (1). However, many NTM can and do cause disease in immune-competent hosts. Pulmonary infection by NTM can be a source of diagnostic uncertainty, especially in locations such as in China, where acid-fast staining of sputum samples is the mainstay of diagnosis for tuberculosis (2). NTM are also relatively resistant to many of the first-and second-line drugs used to treat tuberculosis, thus making accurate diagnosis and drug-susceptibility testing critical to clinical management of NTM infections (3). The medical and public health communities have been concerned about increasing prevalence of NTM infection in China, and 2 recent surveys, 1 from Shanghai and another from a rural population in Shandong Province, gave somewhat conflicting reports of the prevalence of these infections (4,5). We therefore decided to conduct a survey of NTM isolates in Beijing from the National Tuberculosis Clinical Laboratory of the Beijing Chest Hospital. We also tested isolates from specimens collected in this laboratory against an extended drug susceptibility panel to determine which drug regimens would be most useful in therapy for various NTM infections.