Non Tubercule Mycobacteria Isolated During Routine TB Culture at Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Ethiopia

Alem Alemayehu123, Abebaw Kebede4, Betselot Zerihun4 and Efrem Tesfaye4 Beyene Petros3

1. Armour Hanson Research Institute, Jimma Road, ALERT compound, P.O. Box 1005, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. E-mail: gechayu2006@gmail.com; 2. Haramaya University Collage of Health Science, Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences P.O. Box: 1005, AHRI Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 3. Adds Ababa University, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Department of Microbial, Cellular and Molecular Biology. E mail: abule2002@yahoo.com; 4. Ethiopian Public Health Institution , Ethiopia:

The species of Non Tubercule Mycobacteria (NTM) and their prevalence is not fully recognized in majority of the developing countries including Ethiopia. Their laboratory identification is still not routinely done and there is a tendency to ignore such isolates as contaminants. Therefore this study aimed to determine the frequency of NTM isolation among pulmonary tuberculosis patients and assess its association with smear microscopy result. A retrospective study was conducted at Ethiopian Public Health Institution (EPHI) National TB referral laboratory. NTM speciation was determined using GenoType Mycobacterium CM/ AS Ver2.0 kit (Hain Life science) Data’s pertinent to the study was extracted from EPHI database. SPSS software version 21.0 (IBM, USA) was used to calculate frequency and Fisher’s exact. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. The study was ethically approved by AAU department of MCMB and Addis Ababa Health Bureau. From January 02 to December 28 2017, a total of 3,834 samples were processed from 698 TB patients (50.6% female). The mycobacterial culture results were documented for 3317 (86.5%) samples and 8.6 % were NTM species. Smear microscopy result was the only variable which had a statistically significant association with NTM in this study (P- value < 0.05).  M. simiae found the predominant species among the Genotyped isolates. This finding indicates that the importance of NTM in the management and control of pulmonary TB. Therefore prospective study determining the type of NTM species based on a larger sample size is recommended.