This simply means that when microscopic slides of these bacteria are rinsed with an acidic solution, they retain a red dye.

Other possible sources of M. fortuitum infection include implanted devices such as catheters, injection site abscesses, and contaminated endoscopes.

Colony characteristics Physiology Differential characteristics The 2007 guideline “Official American Thoracic Society (ATS) and Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) statement: diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of non-tuberculosis mycobacterial diseases”, notes that M. fortuitum isolates are usually susceptible to multiple oral antimicrobial agents, including the macrolides, quinolones, some tetracyclines, and sulfonamides, as well as the intravenous carbapenems (e.g. imipenem).

The guideline recommends “for serious skin, bone, and soft tissue M fortuitum disease, a minimum of 4 months of therapy with at least two agents with in vitro activity against the clinical isolate is necessary to provide a high likelihood of cure.

Surgery is generally indicated with extensive disease, abscess formation, or where drug therapy is difficult.” Strain ATCC 6841 = CCUG 20994 = CIP 104534 = DSM 46621 = IFO (now NBRC) 13159 = JCM 6387 = NCTC 10394.