Review Article General Overview on Nontuberculous Mycobacteria,

Copyright © 2015 Sonia Faria et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are emergent pathogens whose importance in human health has been growing. After being regarded mainly as etiological agents of opportunist infections in HIV patients, they have also been recognized as etiological agents of several infections on immune-competent individuals and healthcare-associated infections. The environmental nature of NTM and their ability to assemble biofilms on different surfaces play a key role in their pathogenesis. Here, we review the clinical manifestations attributed to NTM giving particular importance to the role played by biofilm assembly. 1