First isolation of Mycobacterium setense from hospital water

In recent years, nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) have emerged as an important cause of opportunistic nosocomial infections and pseudo-infections[1-4]. Mycobacterium setense (M. setense) is an emerging organism of the Mycobacterium fortuitum (M. fortuitum) group that was added to the growing list of rapidly growing mycobacteria isolated from humans in 2008. It was firstly isolated and characterized from a patient with a posttraumatic chronic skin abscess associated with osteitis[5]. Apart from two clinical reports from France and Iran, there have been no ecological data in the natural habitat of this species since its original isolation and characterization[6,7]. This investigation presents the findings of a study on isolation of four unrelated environmental strains of M. setense from hospital environment and helps to assess the natural habitat and the mode of transmission in man.