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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 2009, p. 2149-2155, Vol. 47, No. 7
0095-1137/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.00027-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Instituto de Microbiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,1 Instituto de Pesquisa Evandro Chagas, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,2 Departamento de Microbiologia, Imunologia e Parasitologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil,3 Sérgio Franco Medicina Diagnóstica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,4 Hospital Universitário Pedro Ernesto, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,5 Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,6 Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde do Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, Brazil,7 Instituto de Estudos de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,8 Secretaria Municipal de Saúde do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,9 Hospital de Clínicas Riomar, Rio de Janeiro, Brazi1,10 Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazi1,11 Centro de Referência Professor Hélio Fraga, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,12 Instituto Fleury de Ensino e Pesquisa, São Paulo, Brazil,13
Received 6 January 2009/ Returned for modification 19 February 2009/ Accepted 4 April 2009
An epidemic of infections after video-assisted surgery (1,051 possible cases) caused by rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) and involving 63 hospitals in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, occurred between August 2006 and July 2007. One hundred ninety-seven cases were confirmed by positive acid-fast staining and/or culture techniques. Thirty-eight hospitals had cases confirmed by mycobacterial culture, with a total of 148 available isolates recovered from 146 patients. Most (n = 144; 97.2%) isolates presented a PRA-hsp65 restriction pattern suggestive of Mycobacterium bolletii or Mycobacterium massiliense. Seventy-four of these isolates were further identified by hsp65 or rpoB partial sequencing, confirming the species identification as M. massiliense. Epidemic isolates showed susceptibility to amikacin (MIC at which 90% of the tested isolates are inhibited [MIC90], 8 µg/ml) and clarithromycin (MIC90, 0.25 µg/ml) but resistance to ciprofloxacin (MIC90,
32 µg/ml), cefoxitin (MIC90, 128 µg/ml), and doxycycline (MIC90,
64 µg/ml). Representative epidemic M. massiliense isolates that were randomly selected, including at least one isolate from each hospital where confirmed cases were detected, belonged to a single clone, as indicated by the analysis of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns. They also had the same PFGE pattern as that previously observed in two outbreaks that occurred in other Brazilian cities; we designated this clone BRA100. All five BRA100 M. massiliense isolates tested presented consistent tolerance to 2% glutaraldehyde. This is the largest epidemic of postsurgical infections caused by RGM reported in the literature to date in Brazil.
Published ahead of print on 29 April 2009.
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