A cluster of four cases of Mycobacterium haemophilum infection.
Four cases of infection with Mycobacterium haemophilum occurred at a single hospital in a seven-month period. Only 22 cases have been reported since 1976. All four patients were immunocompromised; two had AIDS and two were the first known recipients of allogeneic bone marrow transplants (BMT) to develop the infection. One BMT recipient died of Mycobacterium haemophilum pneumonia. The organism requires hemin or ferric ammonium citrate and incubation of media at 30 degrees C for optimum growth. Clinicians and microbiologists should consider infection with Mycobacterium haemophilum, particularly when specimens are from immunocompromised patients with unexplained illness and/or when acid-fast bacilli are seen on smear.
Infectious Disease Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
T E
TE
Kiehn
M
M
White
K J
KJ
Pursell
N
N
Boone
M
M
Tsivitis
A E
AE
Brown
B
B
Polsky
D
D
Armstrong
D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000188:drug therapy; D000328:Adult; D000583:Amikacin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000276:immunology; D002939:Ciprofloxacin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004318:Doxycycline / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D008297:Male; D009165:Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology*; D009170:Nontuberculous Mycobacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification*
D000995:Antitubercular Agents; D002939:Ciprofloxacin; D000583:Amikacin; D004318:Doxycycline