We prospectively studied 298 patients with cystic fibro-sis (mean age 11.3 years; range 2 months to 32 years; sexratio, 0.47) for nontuberculous mycobacteria in respiratorysamples from January 1, 1996, to December 31, 1999.Mycobacterium abscessus was by far the most prevalentnontuberculous mycobacterium: 15 patients (6 male, 9female; mean age 11.9 years; range 2.5–22 years) had atleast one positive sample for this microorganism (versus 6patients positive for M. avium complex), including 10 with>3 positive samples (versus 3 patients for M. avium com-plex). The M. abscessus isolates from 14 patients weretyped by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis: each of the 14patients harbored a unique strain, ruling out a commonenvironmental reservoir or person-to-person transmission.Water samples collected in the cystic fibrosis center werenegative for M. abscessus. This major mycobacterialpathogen in children and teenagers with cystic fibrosisdoes not appear to be acquired nosocomially
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