OBJECTIVE To evaluate clinical features, management options and outcomes in children with neck abscesses, with a view to correlating this data with the different causative micro-organisms, specifically mycobacteria. PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective chart review of fifty-one consecutive children who were admitted with suspected superficial neck abscesses to the Unit between January 1994 an...

We were greatly impressed by the Joint Tuberculosis Committee guidelines on the management of opportunist mycobacterial infections. We do, however, wonder why the word “opportunist” has been used to describe the mycobacteria, other than the M tuberculosis complex, that cause human disease. All mycobacteria causing disease, even the M tuberculosis complex, are opportunists. Thus, the latter are ...

Atypical mycobacteria are saprophytic organisms not transmitted from person to person, which affect mainly immunosuppressed but also immunocompetent individuals. We present a case of atypical mycobacteriosis after a vascular procedure, with widespread cutaneous lesions associated with polyarthralgia. Mycobacterium chelonae was identified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. The patien...

INTRODUCTION The objective of the case report is to highlight the possibility of osteomyelitis caused by atypical mycobacteria. Such an infection may simulate tuberculous bone infection and yet fail to respond to standard anti-tuberculous drug therapy. CLINICAL PICTURE A 66-year-old man who suffered from diabetes mellitus presented with osteomyelitis of the right wrist, with extensive synovia...

We were greatly impressed by the Joint Tuberculosis Committee guidelines on the management of opportunist mycobacterial infections. We do, however, wonder why the word “opportunist” has been used to describe the mycobacteria, other than the M tuberculosis complex, that cause human disease. All mycobacteria causing disease, even the M tuberculosis complex, are opportunists. Thus, the latter are ...

Despite the ubiquitous presence of atypical mycobacteria in the environment and the potential risk of infection in humans and animals, the pathogenesis of diseases caused by infection with atypical mycobacteria has been poorly characterized. In this study, goldfish, Carassius auratus were infected either with the rapidly growing fish pathogen, Mycobacterium fortuitum or with another rapidly gro...