Bronchiectasis in teachers & health care workers

@jnmy That is a very interesting question, especially since many other lung diseases have a known exposure component. Not finding anything with a cursory search, I resorted to Google Scholar, using a variety of key words, and the only totally on-point study I found as a relatively small one from Korea:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7723591/
Their conclusion seemed to be that occupation was less of an indicator than most other factors.

Anecdotally, my former ID doc and pulmonologist told me that in their experience the occupation or activity that presented to them often was gardener/florist - citing constant close contact with NTM infected soils, peat and their airborne particles. That made a lot of sense to me as my infection by M. Avium seemed to stem from prolonged exposure to soils contaminated by feral chickens and wild birds. But we still don't know which came first, Bronchiectasis or infection.

This certainly would be an interesting research topic, but I don't think primary providers encounter either bronchiectasis or NTM often enough that it would ever become part of a diagnostic checklist for them. Mine was preliminarily diagnosed by a sharp-eyed radiologist when I had a lung x-ray for pneumonia - several years after my symptoms began.

Thank you for your comments and research @sueinmn You are so knowledgeable and generous with this group.

I would hope more awareness would be passed on to family doctors, especially with post Covid infections causing issues for some with lung infection and inflammation.

I hope more research is done to delve into whether untreated viral or fungal infection in the lungs might cause Bronchiectasis. I know Bronchiectasis is often discovered with other lung disease, chronic infections or NTM. Some of us though don’t have NTM (at least not yet) or other chronic illness.

We might have had lingering infections that were not treated timely and / or with the necessary antibiotics.

That one to two year period of infections, recurring symptoms, lack of airway clearance creates more than just tree in bud opacities on X-rays or CT scans.

This is anecdotal, however I heard a cardiologist recently mention that Bronchiectasis is fairly common in the teaching and medical health professions. It was this person’s observation that those working in Healthcare and teaching are exposed to lots of viruses over a career. I wonder if other cardiologists make similar observations?

Based on this specialist’s comments, I think he was referring to people who have some tree in bud opacities, noted by a radiologist, but perhaps not producing symptoms.

Perhaps researchers might be interested in the topic of untreated infection that may cause symptomatic disease and study it further.

I’m already seeing some scholarly articles from medical journals that are looking at untreated infections, with some concluding that these infections can cause Bronchiectasis.

I’ve read there will be more research. Perhaps AI will help wade through the symptoms, demographics, risk factors for disease and progression, and existing data from researchers and discover more to help educate practitioners. With luck, more research can prevent others from developing this chronic condition.

I am a retired teacher who was diagnosed with Bronchiectasis in 2014. I had pneumonia several times. I was on three antibiotics year round, but continued to get sick. I also have sinus issues.
After being online during Covid I retired.
Being out of teaching I no longer wheeze or get really sick (still have exacerbations), but much better.
Teaching is very difficult when you’re ill, like not being able to go to the bathroom when you want, no available subs.. so we teach while sick, etc.
I now have time to properly nebulize, nasal wash and stay away from those who may be sick.
I can imagine it would be similar to other fields like teaching.
Take Care of yourselves!

I took a brief look and didn’t see any info. I’m only speculating,, but it’s more common in older women, and traditionally women made up larger numbers of health care workers and teachers. That might explain why your doc saw more in those professions, but still leaves the question of cause.

It seems to me that teachers and health care workers would be exposed to more pulmonary infections than average. I did not have a public profession but I did keep getting bad chest colds. Then after one of them it turned to infection which was treated after almost 5 months (thinking it would go away). The antibiotic that was given was one that is most prone to cause colitis (C-Diff). I already had GI issues and I got C Diff antibiotic associate colitis which took almost a year to get over. Meanwhile I was afraid to treat my lung infection again. The antibiotic only cleared up some of the infection but not ALL of it so it built back up. So anyway after that it became chronic and I feel that is how my Bronchiectasis developed. Untreated infection and repeated infections can lead to Bronchiectasis eventually.

Sue, if I remember correctly Terri ( @windwalker ) was compiling a list of us who were teachers or nurses or other healthcare professionals. I haven’t seen any posts from her in a long time and hope she is ok. And I may be wrong, but I think it was Terri who was collecting that kind of info - not research exactly, but certainly useful info. Irene

Irene, I think you may be correct.
Almost all of the studies I can find point to "lower socio-economic bracket" as a predictor, which would seem to preclude teachers and many health care workers. But certainly frequent lung infections is one predictor so repeated exposure may be the common factor, not necessarily occupation.
If I were still doing basic research...

Teachers and health care workers, particularly those who are unionized, generally have decent health insurance and might therefore be more likely to be diagnosed. I would guess that not only gardeners and florists but farm laborers and those who work in earth-moving, such as road building and mining, would be less likely to be diagnosed and/or treated.

Yes, @sueinmn I’ve seen ‘lower socio economic’ listed as a risk factor too. I think some of that pertains to global situations where people wouldn’t have access to doctors on a fairly regular basis or maybe to situations where people are underserved by physicians & specialists or are marginalized. Many of us don’t fall into this category.

I do fall into the category of having had a doctor who was adamant that my obvious and worsening conditions were nothing of concern. I finally got a respirologist who sent me for sputum tests that I had been requesting for a year or more, and a CT scan. I then received antibiotics that targeted the infection and inflammation, but it was too late. Now diagnosed with Bronchiectasis and ongoing symptoms. An obvious change in x rays over two years and CT scan confirmed the change.

I strongly believe more awareness is urgently needed at the level of family doctor. Mine was unaware of any specifics. They do feel certain they can diagnose though. It is part of the culture.

Yes @tcd518 tgere is the issue of access to healthcare. But lack of aware of Bronchiectasis as a chronic lung disease is missing although next to COPD and asthma, it is often mentioned in medical journals and on medical websites.