HELP! is it impossible to Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and M.Leprae work together form a new disease?
The Mycobacterium genus is quite broad, with many sub-groups of potentially pathogenic bacteria such as MAC complex, M. marinum, M. tuberculosis complex and M. leprae. Of these, those that cause leprosy and those that cause tuberculosis don’t have that much in common and I think it is unlikely that they could interbreed naturally. It is possible but rare to be infected with both tuberculosis and leprosy. There is a lot of confusion over the relationship between them. It seems people with leprosy are more likely to get tuberculosis but people with tuberculosis are less likely to get leprosy. It is thought in the former case the patients may have had an immune defect that increased their likelihood of getting both, or the leprosy weakened the immune system and allowed the TB infection. Leprosy and tuberculosis bacteria share some immune characteristics so it is thought that TB might give some immunity to leprosy. It has even been speculated that the widespread prevalence of tuberculosis
