A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE SUSCEPTIBILITIES TO ANTITUBERCULOSIS AGENTS BETWEEN MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS AND MYCOBACTERIUM AVIUM COMPLEX STRAINS

Abstract

Clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were considered as a group of homogeneous strains showing similar or, if any, only slightly different susceptibilities to antituberculosis agents, whereas those of Mycobacterium avium complex as a group of heterogeneous strains showing greatly different susceptibilities to the agents.The M. avium complex strains had been considered as resistant to most antituberculosis agents and their levels of the resistance were never studied in detail. The results of the present study revealed that they were not uniformly resistant but greatly different in their susceptibilities to antituberculosis agents.