Abstract
Mycobacteriosis avium (MV) is a disease rarely diagnosed in community hospitals.
The diagnosis is very difficult to make because it requires specialists and a laboratory
with full facilities for making a diagnosis of the disease. However, such specialized teams
are usually available only in medical schools. Furthermore, the microbiological examination
necessary takes several months before the results can be reported. In the meantime,
patients would inevitably suffer from the disease and the side-effects of the medication
prescribed, i.e., for a case with a provisional diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.
The patient in this report had suffered from a chronic illness for almost seven years
before receiving treatment as a case of pulmonary tuberculosis based on the common
clinical features of tuberculosis coupled with the results of three consecutively positive
direct smear sputa tests. He subsequently suffered from TB drug toxicity adverse reactions,
including hepatotoxicity, renal toxicity, color blindness, nausea, flatulence, diarrhea,
itching, arthralgia, headache and shock. A correct diagnosis was obtained when he
sought an opinion in several hospitals, with a culture of the mycobacteria revealing the
fact.
This article recounts the true story of a doctor and patient written with the intention
to provide lessons for other physicians and health-care workers that mycobacteriosis avium
ought be one of the differential diagnoses for patients with signs and symptoms similar
to tuberculosis.
