Transmission and Acquisition of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Outbreak Investigation (TrANsMIt)

This study is a parallel multi-site study of people cared for in a healthcare center who are identified with highly similar respiratory nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) isolates. All study activities described herein are optional and conducted at the discretion of each participating site.

This is an outbreak investigation and involves no more than minimal risk, which is commensurate with those inherent in the actual or expected care of a patient with pulmonary NTM. No samples will be collected from the identified participants outside of routine clinical care. As with any research study, there is a potential risk of breach of individual patient confidentiality. Linked to the samples will be clinical data, specifically NTM culture results and designation of NTM disease status, as well as data captured routinely in the course of clinical care. There is no additional testing required for this protocol beyond what is recommended for standard care, and no additional research visits beyond normally scheduled clinic visits.

The Transmission and Acquisition of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Outbreak Investigation (TrANsMIt) study is designed to provide resources to systematically collect data to perform an outbreak investigation on people in a suspected healthcare-associated NTM outbreak. Respiratory NTM isolates will undergo WGS to identify infections that are highly related and falling into clusters in order to determine if the source of NTM infection may be a healthcare-associated outbreak. The investigators integrated clinical and epidemiological research methods to adapt a CDC standardized, and validated Healthcare-Associated Infection Outbreak Investigation Toolkit to retrospectively collect data for suspected healthcare-associated NTM outbreak investigations. Through consultation with subject matter experts and scientific literature review, the investigators modified the CDC Healthcare-Associated Infection Outbreak Investigation Abstraction Form, designed to be utilized in local investigations of common healthcare-associated infections to develop the Healthcare-associated links in transmission of NTM (HALT NTM) study Outbreak Investigation Abstraction Toolkit. The HALT NTM Toolkit is a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant, web-based, branching logic questionnaire that uses integrated clinical and epidemiological research methods to perform an epidemiologic investigation to identify overlaps in space and time with mapping of visits and source(s) of care among patients with highly similar NTM isolates in a Center. Additionally, the Toolkit assesses detailed Center-specific IP&C measures utilized the healthcare system. Utilizing the HALT NTM toolkit, the TrANsMit study facilitates a standardized, stepwise process by which healthcare centers perform an internal epidemiologic evaluation of patients identified as part of an NTM cluster. Since clustered NTM isolates could originate from a shared healthcare source, dust and water biofilms from the healthcare environment are collected. NTM are recovered, identified, and sequenced as described to determine if the respiratory NTM strain genotype is similar to those recovered from the healthcare environment. Through a collaborative agreement, TrANsMIt is available to U.S. healthcare centers to conduct a standardized, independent, confidential NTM outbreak investigation.