Infection with Mycobacterium malmoense in Sweden: report of 221 cases

Mycobacterium malmoense was first described in 1977 and today is second only to the Mycobacterium avium complex as a cause of atypical mycobacterial infection in Sweden. We retrospectively studied the records of 221 patients from whom M. malmoense was isolated during 1968-1989. M. malmoense was recovered from the respiratory tract of 171 patients (170 adults and one child) and from cervical lymph nodes of 36 patients (35 children and one adult). In addition, the organism was isolated from the urine of six patients, one of whom had disseminated disease and two of whom had abscesses caused by M. malmoense. A majority of the patients with pulmonary infection as well as the patient with disseminated disease had other underlying diseases.