Recovery Rates of Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria from Clinical Specimens Are Increasing in Korean Tertiary-Care Hospitals

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are being recognized increasingly as the causative agents of opportunistic infections in humans. This study investigated the epidemiologic trends of NTM recovery from various clinical specimens in 2 Korean tertiary-care hospitals. We reviewed the laboratory records of patient samples cultured for mycobacteria between 2009 and 2015 at 2 tertiary-care hospitals in Korea. The medical records for patients with positive NTM samples were also reviewed. During the study period, 144,540 specimens were cultured for mycobacteria. The proportion of NTM-positive samples increased from 23.3% in 2009 to 48.2% in 2015. The 2 most frequently isolated NTM were Mycobacterium intracellulare (38.3%) and M. avium (23.1%). The number of clinically significant diseases caused by NTM in inpatients and outpatients increased from 6.8 to 12.9 per 100,000 patients over the same period. The rates of recovery of NTM from clinical specimens and the number of patients with NTM infections increased significantly (P < 0.001, testing for trend) between 2009 and 2015.