What are atypical mycobacterial infections?
Definition Atypical mycobacterial infections are infections caused by several types of mycobacteria similar to the germ that causes tuberculosis. These atypical mycobacterial infections are a frequent complication in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection or AIDS. Description Mycobacteria are a group of rod-shaped bacteria that cause several diseases, among them leprosy and tuberculosis. For some time, scientists have known of bacteria that are similar to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of tuberculosis, but that grow and act differently. When tuberculosis was a much more widespread problem and microbiology was much less able to tell the difference between similar microbes, these atypical mycobacteria were ignored. Today, they have been classified more precisely as members of the same species and called atypical (or nontuberculosis) mycobacteria. Although the medical profession has known about these atypical infections for a long time, they were not considered
