Ready-to-eat (RTE) food sold in Quetta, Pakistan was assessed for microbial contamination. Methods: Equal numbers of samples were collected from four categories of RTE foodburgers, shawarma, pizza and sandwichesfrom January 2018 to December 2018. Microbial contamination of individual food samples was assessed by quantifying the total aerobic count obtained from plating samples on bacterial growth medium. Salmonella spp. serovars were identified using polymerase chain reaction. Results: Approximately 38% (121/320) of RTE food samples were not fit for human consumption. The most contaminated type of RTE food was shawarma (49%). Microbial contamination of food samples was higher in summer compared with the other seasons. Approximately 40% (49/121) of food samples that were not fit for human consumption were contamined with Salmonella spp. Salmonella enteritidis (69%) and Salmonella typhimurium (31%) were the only serovars among the samples testing positive for Salmonella spp. Of the 49 samples with high microbial counts, S. enteritidis was present in 34 samples and S. typhimurium was present in 15 samples. The antibiotic sensitivity results demonstrated that both S. enteritidis and S. typhimurium were resistant to amoxicillin. In addition, S. enteritidis was resistant to chloramphenicol and erythromycin, and S. typhimurium presented high resistance to erythromycin. Both S. typhimurium and S. enteritidis were highly sensitive to kanamycin. Conclusion: RTE food sold by street vendors in Quetta was found to be contaminated with Salmonella spp. and poses a great health risk to consumers. As such, consumption should be avoided, and the health authorities should take stringent action to ensure the quality of street food in order to reduce the healthcare burden.

Authors' Contribution AS, FA and TMA designed the experiments. AS, MN and HA performed the experiments. TMA, JR and RA analyzed the data. All authors contributed in Manuscript writing.

GeneXpert MTB/RIF has revolutionized the tuberculosis diagnosis by simultaneous detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and resistance to RIF (rifampicin), a surrogate marker for multidrug-resistant TB in less than two hours. The RIF-resistance pattern in Balochistan, Pakistan, is not documented. This study was aimed to detect RIF-resistant TB and mutations in RNA polymerase beta (rpoB) gene of M. tuberculosis within 81-bp RRDR in Quetta, Pakistan using GeneXpert® MTB/RIF assay. In total, 2300 clinical specimens were collected from suspected TB patients at Fatima Jinnah General and Chest Hospital Quetta, Pakistan between January and August 2017. These specimens were analyzed by GeneXpert® MTB/RIF assay. The data was statistically analyzed using SPSS software. Out of 2300 clinical specimens, M. tuberculosis was positive in in 899 (39.1%) cases by GeneXpert® MTB/RIF assay [positive respiratory cases 42.9% (871/2032) and non-respiratory 10.4% (28/268) with statistically significant difference (χ2= 104.5, p<0.001)]. Among 899 MTB positive cases, 46 (5.1%) were RIF-resistance caused by various rpoB gene mutations within 81-bp RRDR. Most of the RIF-resistant isolates were observed to harbor mutationsin Probe E 78.3% (n=36) whereas mutations in Probe A, B, D were observed 2.2% (n=1), 4.3% (n=2), and 6.5% (n=3), respectively. However, none of cases had RIF-resistance associated with Probe C. Out of 46 RRD cases, 21 (45.7 %) were males and 25 (54.3 %) were females. Additionally, Xpert® test showed higher detection rate than fluorescent microscopy (39.1% vs 31.2%, P<0.05) and detected MTB in 186 (11.8%) smear-negative specimens. Among 42 confirmed TB patients had MDR contact and eight patients were co-infected with HIV. In conclusion, 5.1% of the TB patients showed rifampicin resistance. The most frequent rpoB genetic mutations were observed in codons 531/533 (Probe E, 78.3%) whereas the least within the sequence 511 (Probe A, 2.2%).