Environmental disease : environmental alteration and infectious disease

自20世纪90年代以来，非结核分枝杆菌（NTM）病的发病率在大多数工业化国家逐渐增加。水生环境被认为是NTM的感染源，但感染途径仍不清楚。本研究的目的是从微生物学、流行病学和生物信息学的综合角度揭示NTM疾病的发生机制。我们的研究结果表明，浴室厕所被认为是一个重要的NTM物种鸟分枝杆菌的水库。实验结果还表明，余氯浓度对M. avium因此，提出了“氯消毒-耐氯菌存活-NTM病害发生”的连锁反应是NTM病害发生的机理。

The incidence of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) diseases has increased gradually in most industrialized countries since 1990's. Aquatic environments are thought to be sources of infection of NTM, but the infectious routes remain unknown. The goal of this study was revealing the occurrence mechanism of NTM disease from the comprehensive viewpoint of microbiology, epidemiology and bioinformatics. Our results showed that bathroom environmentis supposed as the reservoir of Mycobacterium avium which is a clinically important NTM species. The results also suggested that the concentration of residual chlorine should affect the survival of M. avium. In conclusion, the linkage of "chlorine disinfection-survival of NTM with chlorine resistance-occurrence of NTM disease" was suggested as the occurrence mechanism of NTM disease.