@hydrang3a My dr said he has seen cases go away permanently who were on my antibiotic regimen for at least 10 yrs, and they must not have bronchiectasis, and there is only a 30% chance that those patients won't see it return. Prognosis for those who have minimally damaged lungs. After coming off the BIG 3, bronchiectasis patients need to be on small doses of preventative antibiotics for life. Bronchiectasis damages lung tissue and leaves the lungs suseptible to bacterial infections. My dr always says "I am not treating your mac, I am treating your bronchiectasis."

@hydrang3a My take on this issue is that, although the bacterial is prevalent and pretty much everybody can have exposure to it, not everybody will be infected. The reason is that those of us who have been infected are invariably suffering from some kind of underlying health problem that makes us susceptible to this particular infection and most of these underlying health issues are either very tough to cure or simply incurable, whereas the healthy people will not be affected by the exposure. So even if we are able to get rid of the infection through treatment, our underlying diseases will very likely to cause us to be re-infected and we end up being put in this vicious cycle. It sounds hopeless and depressing. But it doesn't have to be. We just have to be very diligent in avoiding the exposure to the bacteria while trying to stay on top of our existing health problems.