Aim: Comparision of the incidence of cervical lymphadenitis caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria in two equal time periods before and after the ending of widespread calmetization (tuberculosis vaccination). Backgroung. From 2011 to 2018, 89 children were registered in the Tuberculosis Register with cervical lymphadenitis caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria, as confirmed by cultivation. In the majority of cases, the infection was caused by a mycobacterium belonging to the Mycobacterium avium complex. Only 7 cases of cervical lymphadenitis of the same etiology were registered during the same time interval between 2003 and 2010. The authors consider the ending of widespread calmetization (tuberculosis vaccination) in 2010 to be the main cause of the growing incidence.
Method: A comparison of data for the period 2003-2018 about cases of the illness caused by atypical mycobacteria as reported in the Tuberculosis Register.
Results: The average incidence per year in the first interval was 0.04/100 000 children and in the second interval 0.53/100 000 children. During the second time interval, there was an increase from 0.14/100 000 children in 2011 to 1.40/100 000 children in 2018. While the incidence during the first time interval did not show any time trend (P=0.885), the year 2010 marks a significant turning point, with growth during the second interval being highly statistically significant (P<0.001).
Keywords: Mycobacterium avium complex; calmetization; cervical lymphadenitis; nontuberculous mycobacterial infection (NTM).