Atypical mycobacterium found in milk, oysters, soil and water. M. scrofulaceum is a rare pathogen of the slow-growing nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTMs) family. M. scrofulaceum can infect any tissue in humans.
In children, the pathogen is found clustered in pediatric cervical lymphadenitis. In adult patients, pulmonary infections are prominent (Suzuki S et al. 2016; Wilson JW et al. 2019) .
Occurring mainly in childhood, after weaning.
In adults, predominantly middle-aged and older men.
Childhood: Cervical lymphadenitis, colliquative skin lesions.
Adulthood: Mostly chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases are present, not infrequently with histories of pulmonary tuberculosis. Frequently, the pathogen has been found in South African gold mine workers (Corbett EL et al 1999). In a major microbiology center, positive M. scrofulaceum cultures were identified in 17 patients over a 15-year period. 10x this finding was associated with clinical infection. These were:
Immunomodulatory conditions were present in almost all adult patients. Patients with pulmonary or pleural infections frequently had structural lung disease. Disseminated infections by M. scrofulaceum have been observed in HIV-infected individuals (Sanders JW et al 1995). In contrast, M. scrofulaceum is isolated in about 1/3 of patients in urine or respiratory cultures without evidence of clinical disease.
Treatment outcomes are generally favorable; however, prognosis is more guarded in patients with pulmonary M. scrofulaceum disease (Wilson JW et al 2019).