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<span><strong>Background: </strong><span>Although, nontuberculous mycobacteria can cause disease in different organisms, they<br /><span>usually are not reported in most countries because scientists in general consider them as non-pathogens.<br /><span>But, increasing nontuberculous mycobacteria diseases occurrence has changed this belief. Nevertheless,<br /><span>there is no meta-analysis review about prevalence of nontuberculous mycobacteria in Iran.<br /><span><strong>Methods: </strong><span>Any data about prevalence of nontuberculous mycobacteria in clinical specimens in Iran<br /><span>were retrieved by searching data bases such as Pub Med, MEDLINE, and Iranian data bases. Then the<br /><span>meta-analysis was performed by comprehensive meta-analysis software (CMA).<br /><span><strong>Results: </strong><span>The meta-analysis showed that the prevalence of nontuberculous mycobacteria in the clinical<br /><span>specimens in Iran was 1.3%. In the studies that had sample size less than 300, and in studies conducted<br /><span>after 2004, the prevalence was higher. Also, the prevalence of nontuberculous mycobacteria was higher<br /><span>in the West of Iran. In this study, the most prevalent rapid-growing mycobacterium was Mycobacterium.<br /><span>fortuitum and most prevalent slow-growing mycobacterium was M. simiae with the prevalence 44.2%<br /><span>and 14.3%, respectively.<br /><span><strong>Conclusion: </strong><span>M. simiae is the most prevalent nontuberculous mycobacteria in the clinical specimens<br /><span>in Iran. As this species of nontuberculous mycobacteria has similar clinical and radiological<br /><span>manifestations with tuberculosis, it is often treated as tuberculosis. Unfortunately, M. simiae is resistant<br /><span>against first-line anti-TB drugs resulting in treatment failure after using routine anti-TB medication.<br /><span>Therefore, there is an urgent need for application of new diagnostic strategy for identification of<br /><span>nontuberculous mycobacteria species.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span></span></span></span></span>