The upsurges of tuberculous (TB) and non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) epidemics are believed to be associated with the Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) / acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic. Tuberculosis kills over 2 million people worldwide every year even though the disease is preventable and curable. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005 declared TB as a public health emergency due its high morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is feared that people in the excess of one billion will contract TB with the attendant 35 million deaths from the disease by the year 2020. The majority of these will be HIV / AIDS patients. The TB - HIV co-infection problem is further aggravated by the emergence of NTM, which cause TB-like syndromes among immunocompromised patients. The association of HIV / AIDS with phenomena such as increasing of multiple drug resistant TB and the NTM syndromes may be pointing to the possibility of HIV - Mycobacterium genomic interaction resulting into the emergence of unique Mycobacterium strains. The objective of this article was to theorize the possibility of occurrence of Mycobacterium - HIV genomic interaction and emergence of unique Mycobacterium strains, and the opportunities such occurrence may provide in the world of medicine. Literature search on internet and peer reviewed articles in journals were reviewed to deduce the possibility of Mycobacterium and HIV genomic interaction and development of new and unique strains of Mycobacterium. The intimate association of the upsurge of TB and NTM epidemics with HIV / AIDS raises the assumption of occurrence of Mycobacterium - HIV genomic interaction in Mycobacterium - HIV co-infected individuals, which may lead to development of unique Mycobacterium strains. It is essential to interrogate this assumption to generate information that may lead to improved to control of TB and NTM epidemics.
Key words: Mycobacterium, HIV genomic interaction, unique mycobacterium strains
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