The purpose of this study was to assess the distribution of Mycobacterium
avium serovars isolated from AIDS patients in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Ninety single site or multiple site isolates from 75 patients were
examined. The most frequent serovars found were 8 (39.2%), 4 (21.4%) and 1
(10.7%). The frequency of mixed infections with serovar 8 or 4 was 37.8%.
Among the 90 strains examined, M. intracellulare serovars (7 strains) and
M. scrofulaceum (4 strains) were found in 11 isolates (12%) indicating that
M. avium (88%) was the major opportunistic species in the M. avium complex
isolates in Brazilian AIDS patients.
