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A cluster of four cases ofMycobacterium haemophilum infection

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Abstract

Four cases of infection withMycobacterium haemophilum occurred at a single hospital in a seven-month period. Only 22 cases have been reported since 1976. All four patients were immunocompromised; two had AIDS and two were the first known recipients of allogeneic bone marrow transplants (BMT) to develop the infection. One BMT recipient died ofMycobacterium haemophilum pneumonia. The organism requires hemin or ferric ammonium citrate and incubation of media at 30 °C for optimum growth. Clinicians and microbiologists should consider infection withMycobacterium haemophilum, particularly when specimens are from immuno-compromised patients with unexplained illness and/or when acid-fast bacilli are seen on smear.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Infectious Disease Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, New York, USA

    T. E. Kiehn, M. White, N. Boone, M. Tsivitis, A. E. Brown, B. Polsky & D. Armstrong

  2. Section of General Internal Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, 840 South Wood Street, 60612, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    K. J. Pursell

Authors
  1. T. E. Kiehn
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  2. M. White
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  3. K. J. Pursell
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  4. N. Boone
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  5. M. Tsivitis
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  6. A. E. Brown
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  7. B. Polsky
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  8. D. Armstrong
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Kiehn, T.E., White, M., Pursell, K.J. et al. A cluster of four cases ofMycobacterium haemophilum infection. Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 12, 114–118 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01967586

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01967586

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