Nontuberculous Mycobacteria from Household Plumbing of Patients with Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Disease

To determine whether plumbing could be a source of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infection, during 2007-2009 I isolated NTM from samples from household water systems of NTM patients. Samples from 22/37 (59%) households and 109/394 (28%) total samples yielded NTM. Seventeen (46%) of the 37 households yielded ≥1 Mycobacterium spp. isolate of the same species as that found in the patient; in 7 of those households, the patient isolate and 1...