title: Frequency of Mycobacterium chimaera among Belgian patients, 2015.
abstract: Mycobacterium chimaera arouses an increasing public health concern, as this non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) has recently been associated with life-threatening cardiac infections. M. chimaera and Mycobacteriumintracellulare are genetically very close but recently appeared to present different epidemiological and clinical significance. Therefore, it has become important for laboratories to use adequate techniques allowing precise species identification. To date, most commercially available laboratory assays cannot distinguish them and erroneously identify M. chimaera as M. intracellulare. We performed a re-analysis of the 149 M. intracellulare strains received by the Belgian National Reference Laboratory using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, representing 25 % of all NTM collected in 2015. We found that M. chimaera represents the majority (n=94, 63 %) of the previous M. intracellulare. This study reports the large presence of M. intracellulare/chimaera among Belgian patients infected by an NTM and the predominance of the species M. chimaera among this group. This study also stresses the public health importance of M. chimaera and demonstrates the inability of commonly used laboratory techniques to correctly diagnose these infections.
authors.affiliation: Bacterial Diseases Service, Operational Direction Communicable and Infectious Diseases, Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Soetaert
authors.affiliation: Bacterial Diseases Service, Operational Direction Communicable and Infectious Diseases, Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Christelle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vluggen
authors.affiliation: Pôle de Microbiologie Médicale, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: André
authors.affiliation: Bacterial Diseases Service, Operational Direction Communicable and Infectious Diseases, Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vanhoof
authors.affiliation: Bacterial Diseases Service, Operational Direction Communicable and Infectious Diseases, Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vanfleteren
authors.affiliation: Bacterial Diseases Service, Operational Direction Communicable and Infectious Diseases, Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mathys
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001530:Belgium; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009161:Mycobacterium / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009164:Mycobacterium Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S