Hospital water filters as a source of Mycobacterium avium complex

Bronchoscopes and the filters used for washing them were found to yield high numbers of Mycobacterium avium isolates sharing the same repetitive sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) fingerprint pattern as M. avium isolates recovered from patient samples collected by bronchoscopy Water and biofilm samples collected from the bronchoscopy preparation laboratory yielded M avium, Mycobacterium intracellulare, Mycobacterium malmoense and Mycobacterium gordonae Several M atrium and M intracellulare isolates from water samples in the bronchoscopy laboratory had rep-PCR patterns matching those of patient bronchoscopy isolates. Five of the 22 (23 %) M avium patient bronchoscopy isolates and 42 of the 56 (75 %)M intracellulare patient bronchoscopy isolates could have been due to contamination from the water supply