Tap Water Avoidance Decreases Rates of Hospital-onset Pulmonary Nontuberculous Mycobacteria.

We analyzed the impact of a hospital tap water avoidance protocol on respiratory isolation of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). After protocol implementation, hospital-onset episodes of respiratory NTM isolation on high-risk units decreased from 41.0 to 9.9 episodes per 10 000 patient-days (incidence rate ratio, 0.24; 95% confidence interval,.17–.34; P  < .0001). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]