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Methods: In this prospective study, all blood cultures submitted for mycobacteria detection, taken mainly from HIV‐infected patients, were incubated for 12 weeks. The clinical impact of a late positive blood culture result was assessed retrospectively. Results: From a total of 750 blood cultures, 68 had a growth index (GI) >10 due to the presence of mycobacteria. Of 545 negative blood cultures with a GI <10 within 12 weeks examined by Ziehl—Neelsen, one bottle revealed acid‐fast bacilli further identified as Mycobacterium genavense by PCR‐restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of the hsp65 gene. For six of 39 patients with positive blood cultures, the delay to positivity was > 6 weeks (one M. tuberculosis, three M. genavense, two M. avium intracellulare complex). The prolonged incubation and the systematic terminal Ziehl—Neelsen increased the recovery of M. genavense from 5% to 14.5%. However, for only three patients did the late microbiological result lead to the introduction of antimycobacterial therapy. Conclusions: Neither a prolonged incubation longer than 6 weeks nor a terminal Ziehl—Neelsen‐stained smear of the negative blood cultures at 12 weeks seem to be clinically justified.

A system of 15 socio-economic groups (SOEG) based on occupation and position within occupation is proposed and discussed as a basis for statistical analyses of mortality data. In order to check the validity of this classification, a random sample of 3058 male death certificates is compared with the information obtained from the corresponding 1980 census records. The comparison reveals that most of the SOEGs have satisfactory validity. The same is true for a model emulating the widely used English system of Social Classes (SC). Estimates of the differences in mortality between SOEGs or SCs can be improved significantly applying correction factors derived from the sample of linked death certificates and census records.

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