Hi Terri - That's an interesting question.
First, I looked up "orphan diseases" - in the US it is defined as less than 200,000 people affected.
Then I looked up the number of people in the US with bronchiectasis - the estimate is from 350,000 - 500,000 people - so not an orphan.
Then I looked up the number of CF patients in the US - 30,000 total - probably because the average life span for CF is still under 50 yrs.
Other people prone to NTM include ventilator-dependent, HIV positive and COPD patients among others.
And for NTM (all non-tubercular mycobacteria) infections in the US - 86,000 currently - includes all forms and all underlying conditions.
Finally, for comparison, I looked up the number of people in the US with TB - current estimate is 13 million, and the number of shingles cases per year is about 1.4 million.

So there are enough people at risk for NTM to make it "not an orphan" but since the actual number of cases is low, and it is not easily transmissible between people, I suspect only a concerted campaign and the ability to raise funds would be the only way toget vaccine research kick-started.

If anyone has the passion, time and energy for such an undertaking, that would be great.

Sue