A Household-Based Survey of Iodine Nutrition in Moroccan Children Shows Iodine Sufficiency at the National Level But Risk of Deficient Intakes in Mountainous Areas.

Historically, mountainous areas of Morocco have been affected by endemic goiter and severe iodine deficiency. In 1995, Morocco legislated salt iodization to reduce iodine deficiency. There has been no national survey of iodine nutrition in school-age children for nearly 3 decades.

Evaluation of conventional molecular diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in clinical specimens from Morocco.

Introduction: Tuberculosis is a major public health threat, annually affecting new individuals worldwide, especially those in developing countries. Rapid detection of the agent and effective treatment are two important factors in controlling this disease.

Methodology: The present study aimed to evaluate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as a rapid and direct molecular method for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in 70 clinical specimens (62 sputum samples, six cerebrospinal fluids, and two biopsies) using heat shock protein (hsp65) as the gene target.