Nontubercular Mycobacterial Infection in a Renal Allograft Recipient

A 71-year-old male, a renal allograft recipient, presented to us with a history of fever and right palm swelling. He had a history of fever 7 years back when he was treated with antitubercular treatment (ATT). Three years back, he was diagnosed to have gout and he was started on allopurinol. He developed severe bone marrow toxicity and allopurinol was changed to febuxostat. On admission, routine investigations did not reveal any focus of infection. The fluid aspirate from the palm revealed acid-fast bacilli (AFB). He was started on ATT; however, he did not show significant improvement. Two months later, he developed multiple subcutaneous lesions, and the pus again came positive for AFB. Due to lack of improvement, the aspirate was sent for molecular diagnostic identification. The mycobacteria was identified as Mycobacterium haemophilum. His treatment was changed to rifampicin, clarithromycin, and ciprofloxacin. As he showed slow improvement, his immunosuppression was tapered slowly. At 7 months of therapy, he is clinically better and his lesions are healing. His renal functions stayed stable despite tapering of cyclosporine in a patient who is on rifampicin. This case, the first report of M. haemophilum infection in a kidney transplant recipient in India, illustrates the difficulty in diagnosing nontubercular mycobacterial infection in transplant recipients. It also emphasizes the dilemma in tapering immunosuppressive drugs in disseminated nontubercular mycobacterial infections where there are considerable interactions between ATT and immunosuppressives.