Mycobacterium kansasii: a cause of treatable pulmonary disease associated with advanced immunodeficiency virus infection. (Periodical Report)

HIV-associated pulmonary disease due to Mycobacterium kansasii (M. kansasii) (is more common than previously thought and - contrary to previous reports - responds to antituberculosis therapy, report Beth Levine and Richard E. Chaisson of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Levine and Chaisson reviewed the records of all HIV+ patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, with M. kansasii infection between January 1985 and June1990. They identified 19 patients: 14 with exclusively pulmonary infection, three with both pulmonary and extrapulmonary infection, and two with exclusively extrapulmonary infection.

Mean CD4+ lymphocyte counts at the time of M. kansasii diagnosis was 49 cells/[mm.sub.3] …