The aim of

NTM cause a broad spectrum of diseases including lymphadenitis especially in children and bronchopulmonary infections in patients with predisposing lung disease. Skin and soft tissue infections, osteomyelitis, and disseminated disease in immunocompromised individuals are less frequently diagnosed, however all in all the incidence of this rare disease is increasing and recent data suggest a higher prevalence than tuberculosis in developed countries. We therefore encounter the need to specifically adress research in these patients independantly from tuberculosis, and - in the context of rare diseases as NTM-infections - in multinational cohorts.

The Approach - The first -meeting

Members of the recently founded Centre of Chronic Immunodeficiency (CCI, Freiburg) initated an epidemiological study and organized a -Meeting (meeting.ntm-net.org) in Freiburg on NTM-Infections in children and adults November 5th - 6th 2009. This meeting was a combination of an Educational & Scientific Workshop, supported or endorsed by different national and international societies (e.g. ESPID, DGI, ESCMID). Scientists and clinicians involved or interested in NTM-infections from all societies including pneumologists and members of both the TB-NET as well as of the European Society of Mycobacteriology were invited to this first meeting. At this meeting the European Researcher Network "" was officially founded. At the TB-NET meeting in Vienna September 11th, 2009, the "" had already been endorsed as a branch of the TB-NET and - at the Freiburg meeting - the participants and founding members of the voted for this affiliation with great majority.

The first proposal

A first epidemiological case control study, that is currently being setup in Freiburg, has been proposed as a new TBNET-proposal that was presented at the TBNET-Vienna Meeting in September 2009. This study was also an integral part of the NTM-Meeting in Freiburg.

 
Future cooperations

In case you could not attend the Freiburg meeting and are interested in participating in the NTM NET and/or the epidemiological study, please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please also sign up at the TB-NET Webpage, which allows access to the restricted user area. For further informations please look at the homepage .