Sensitivity to "atypical" mycobacteria in high school children in two community health departments.
To evaluate the prevalence of atypical mycobacteria infections in our population, a study was done among students of secondary fifth grade (15-19 years of age) in the community health departments of Maisonneuve-Rosemont in Montreal and of Sherbrooke. The tuberculin used was the RT-23 2 T.U. with Tween 80 and the sensitins prepared by the Statens Serum Institute of Copenhagen from Mycobacterium intracellulare (Battey) and from Mycobacterium kansasii. Each student had a tuberculin test on one arm and a sensitin test on the other. The sensitins were randomly allocated. Depending on how the prevalence is calculated, the Mycobacterium intracellulare infection varies from 3 to 20% in Montreal and from 0 to 9.6% in Sherbrooke. The Mycobacterium kansasii infection is much less important in both regions. All reactions to those atypical mycobacteria are in the range of tuberculin reactions of 0 to 9 mm. In our population which is weakly infected with atypical mycobacteria, the level of positivity of tuberculin reactions to 2 T.U. RT-23 or 5 T.U. P.P.D. would give a more realistic evaluation of M. tuberculosis infection if it was fixed at 5 mm than at 10 mm as it is now.
Frappier-Davignon
L
L
Fortin
R
R
Desy
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000941:Antigens; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001500:BCG Vaccine; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009164:Mycobacterium Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009165:Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology; D009170:Nontuberculous Mycobacteria / Q000276:immunology; D011792:Quebec / Q000453:epidemiology; D014374:Tuberculin Test / Q000592:standards*
D000941:Antigens; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001500:BCG Vaccine; C012031:sensitin