While the spread of tuberculosis has been paid attention to by a number of medical doctors and the ministry of health in all countries, Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) has never been a matter of concern. As a result, although there are many ways of preventing tuberculosis, one of which is the famous BCG vaccine, no one knows how to prevent NTM disease.
Since NTM-LD is difficult to tell from tuberculosis or other respiratory diseases, even the professional medical doctors can fail to diagnose NTM-LD accurately. Besides, examinations to test for NTM infection, such as sputum culture, require good access to a laboratory. Therefore, it is highly probable that NTM-LD is hardly thought of and diagnosed in some countries.
The number of NTM-LD patients is getting bigger than ever. It is urgent that we estimate the number of the patients and know the real situation of NTM-LD.
