Appeal from the European reference laboratory network for tuberculosis for improving the diagnosis of infections caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria

The European Reference Laboratory Network for tuberculosis (TB) (ERLTB-Net), comprising TB reference laboratories from 30 European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries, was created in 2010 to support ECDC and countries in TB diagnostic services, alerts, and response to outbreaks. One of the core activities is to build capacity on standardised methods for mycobacterial diagnosis and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) (https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/about-us/partnerships-and-networks/disease-and-laboratory-networks/erltb-net). ERLTB-Net recently identified weaknesses in capacity building of diagnosis and AST for non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) [ [1] Nikolayevskyy V. Maurer F.P. Holicka Y. Taylor L. Liddy H. Kranzer K. Novel external quality assurance scheme for drug susceptibility testing of non-tuberculous mycobacteria: a multicentre pilot study. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2019; 74: 1288-1294 Crossref PubMed Scopus (6) Google Scholar ] and decided to draft guidance on best practices as well as to seek for research areas.