MAC contagious question

I have been told that it is not contagious, though could be if you're coughing into someone's face with Bronchiectasis or lung damage. I'm certainly not an expert on this subject but how I understand it, is if you have BE lung damage, you don't have the ability to clear your lungs like those without lung damage. You have more mucus that accumulates, that weighs down and damages your cilia. Cilia are also used to clear your lungs. So, your lungs are the perfect place for NTMs to live and fester. This is why nebulizing with 7% saline is recommended by doctors who are NTM experts. The saline nebulizing/airway clearance helps clear the lungs. People with healthy lungs do not have pockets or enlarged areas with damaged cilia and can clear bacteria by coughing. We cannot. I hope this helps a bit. Bacteria are everywhere.

I waited to answer because it's been a long time since I took microbiology and what I learned is mostly ancient history by now- keep that in mind. The infectionness of organisms depends on size, ability to survive outside host and ability to replicate in new one.

To me, seems easiest to understand by looking at hospitals' use of different isolation precautions for different types of infections. Airborne precautions are used for diseases whose organisms are so tiny, they can remain suspended in air for some time after a patient coughs and another person across the room person can breath in the particles and become infected. It's used for highly contagious airborne organisms. Patients with measles, chicken pox and TB (mycobacterium tuberculosis) get these precautions.

Droplet precautions is another category. The organisms are larger and heavier and soon fall to surfaces close to patient when patient coughs. It's used for influenza, diphtheria, and others. It's important to mask if in close contact and to clean the surfaces near patient. It's recommended patients be masked when they can tolerate it.
Both TB and MAC are both mycobacteria, but are different in size and spread.

I understand that. But why can vapor droplets go from subject to soil to subject, But not subject to subject. Your reply gave me 2 thoughts. Mycobacterium from subject must incubate for some time, as in a culture or in soil, before it can affect humans. That's one idea. Or maybe it is the size. From human to human the bacteria may not be viable in the new subject. Must undergo some change. But then I think.... If it's not viable in new subject as is, then why viable in initial subject? Again just trying to figure the logic

It might be a matter of load. Often we read here “I love to garden and have for years” or “I love hot steamy showers, which I take every day”. It is not one instance exposure that becomes a contagion but repeated exposures day in and day out. A constant assault on compromised lungs.

Maybe it’s as simple as NTM don’t infect healthy individuals, who have the ability to clear their lungs normally. Perhaps there is not sufficient time for them to take hold because they are cleared out. So while we can cough in someone’s face, that individual is exposed to NTM regularly in water and soil, so the person-to-person exposure is insignificant?

My take on many things that does go along with what you said and what I believed brought on my BE and then MAC......'never just one thing'. Living life for instance. !
Barbara

I'm talking about coughing on anybody, not just healthy people. My wife got MAC after sitting next to a hacking cougher on a plane, but they say not communicable.

Maybe but one day you're fine and next day positive. ????

Tell me a little bit more about this "...My wife got MAC after sitting next to a hacking cougher on a plane..."
What other issues does your wife have that would make her vulnerable to a MAC infection? How long between her exposure on the plane and her diagnosis with MAC?

How do you know the cougher had NTM? There can be many reasons for a cough that do not have anything to do with NTM.