The 2015 represent the deadline for the global tuberculosis (TB) targets set through the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). From 2016 and onward, new goals were set to end the global TB epidemic via implementing new campaign entitled "the End TB Strategy". The major hurdle to end TB epidemic in several parts of the world is the emergence and spread of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strains. The better understanding of the actual global burden of drug resistant tuberculosis would feed into better implementing the End TB Strategy. In this article we summarize the current knowledge on the patterns of drug resistance tuberculosis cases in the Middle East countries. These countries are served by the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO), one out of six regional offices of World Health Organization. Middle East countries are characterized by geographic vicinity and population's interaction. However, they are dissimilar in several aspects such as economy and health infrastructures. Regarding economy, countries in this region are ranging from wealthy to very poor. Prevalence of tuberculosis and patterns drug resistance tuberculosis cases are also following variable trends within countries of this region. In almost all Middle East countries, there is under-reporting of drug-resistance tuberculosis cases. There are shortages in the infrastructures and facilities for detecting the pattern of drug-resistance tuberculosis. For instance, sixout of 14 countries have neither in-country capacity nor a linkage with a partner laboratory for second-line drug susceptibility testing and only 4 countries have registered site performing Xpert MTB/RIF.

Iraq is specific in having its own most predominant lineage (SIT1144/T1) which is not found among neighboring countries. The 15-locus MIRU-VNTR can be useful in discriminating M. tuberculosis isolates in Iraq.

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These results may indicate the importance of the titers of those isotypes as good predictors of erosive RA and may reflect a causal relationship between their titers and joint damage during the course of RA.

Objective Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus, especially methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is a problem within healthcare organizationsand in the community. The aim of the study was to screen S. aureus carriage and their susceptibility to cefoxitin and oxacillin amongmedical students.Methods A total of 100 nasal swabs were collected. Isolation and identification of the isolate as S. aureus was done using Gram stain,coagulase test and catalase test. S. aureus isolates were confirmed as MRSA using cefoxitin (30 μg) disc and oxacillin (30 μg) disc by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method on Mueller-Hinton agar. From 100 nasal swabs, 76 were coagulase negative Staphylococci and 20 werecoagulase positive Staphylococci.Results From 100 nasal swabs, 76 were coagulase negative Staphylococci and 20 were coagulase positive Staphylococci. From these, 60%and 40% were oxacillin- and cefoxitin-resistant isolates, respectively. The data obtained from this study revealed that there were carriers ofMRSA among the medical students.