Aggressive lung pathogen may not be prone to person-to-person ... - News-Medical.Net
A little-known bacterium -; a distant cousin of the microbes that cause tuberculosis and leprosy -; is emerging as a public health threat capable of causing severe lung infections among vulnerable populations, those with compromised immunity or reduced lung function. Recent research found that various strains of the bacterium, Mycobacterium abscessus, were genetically similar, stoking fears that it was spreading from person to person. But a new study by Harvard Medical School researchers published May 22 in PNAS , calls those findings into question, offering an alternative explanation behind the genetic similarity of clinical clusters. This suggests that the pathogen may not be that prone to person-to-person transmission after all. Our findings make a strong case for a different explanation behind the observed genetic similarities across strains." Maha Farhat, study senior author, the Gilbert S. Omenn Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics at HMS and a pu