TY - JOUR T1 - Diversity of nontuberculous mycobacteria in eastern and southern China: a cross-sectional study JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.01429-2016 VL - 49 IS - 3 SP - 1601429 AU - Yu Pang AU - Yaoju Tan AU - Jin Chen AU - Yanming Li AU - Huiwen Zheng AU - Yuanyuan Song AU - Yanlin Zhao Y1 - 2017/03/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/49/3/1601429.abstract N2 - Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are a heterogeneous group of widely distributed environmental bacteria [1]. Despite generally low pathogenicity in humans, NTM can cause various illnesses especially in HIV-infected patients or those with immunodeficiencies [2]. In recent years, NTM-related disease incidence has increased significantly [3] and, despite China's tuberculosis (TB) programme having more than halved TB prevalence over the past 20 years [4], population-based data indicate that the proportion of NTM among all mycobacterial patient isolates has increased from 11.1% to 22.9% [5], triggering public health concerns.Nontuberculous mycobacterial infections in China: regional predominance of M. intracellulare and M. abscessus http://ow.ly/vg3H306YH8c ER -