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Mycobacterium xenopi is infrequently recognized as a cause of pulmonary disease. During a 12-year survey (1978-89),. 108 strains of this Mycobacterium were isolated from 90 persons and 6 hot water samples. From 87 patients 89 occasional strains of M. xenopi were isolated, and 3 patients were diagnosed as having pulmonary mycobacteriosis caused by it. The treatment and the response in these three cases were variable, depending on clinical conditions and sensitivity to drugs. Most of the strains isolated came from patients hospitalized at the Barzilai Hospital, Ashkelon, therefore a local environmental contamination was suspected. The suspicion was confirmed by the isolation of this thermophile organism from the hot water samples of the above hospital.

The Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare (MAI) group comprised 10.5% of all nontuberculous mycobacteria isolated in the Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory, Tel Aviv, in an 11-year study period. From the Buirej Chest Hospital in Gaza, alone, 273 strains were isolated, representing 12.1% of the specimens from that hospital, while 149 strains (0.24% of all specimens) were isolated from all other institutions. Pulmonary disease was attributed to this organism in 22 patients, 17 of whom were hospitalized (initially for tuberculosis or another lung disease) in Buirej Hospital. The water was thought to be the source of contamination, since MAI strains, similar to those found in sputum, were isolated from it. In 1985, the water system was renovated and the MAI incidence in sputum from this hospital consequently declined.