Nontuberculous mycobacteria and water: a love affair with increasing clinical importance.

Water serves as a major reservoir for the environmental mycobacteria. Many cases of cutaneous mycobacterial disease result from water exposure. The current theory of the pathogenesis of M. avium complex lung disease involves inhalation of organisms aerosolized from surface water. Disseminated M. avium disease in AIDS invariably involves the gastrointestinal tract strongly suggesting that contaminated water could serve as the disease source for this increasingly important disease.