Number of Days Required for Recovery of Mycobacteria from Blood and Other Samples

From 1991 to 1996, 541 blood samples were tested for the presence of mycobacteria; 56 were positive (30 patients, 26 human immunodeficiency virus positive). The species found were Mycobacterium avium (41 samples from 18 patients), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (12 samples from 9 patients), and three other species (1 sample each). The average time to detection was 25.23 days (22.65 for M. avium and 35.33 for M. tuberculosis). For 10 patients, the blood isolate was the only mycobacterium detected (4 M. tuberculosis).