24-locus MIRU-VNTR and Spoligotyping analysis of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from Northeastern Thailand.

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection, remains a global health problem with increased concerns due to drug-resistant tuberculosis. However, molecular genotyping profiles may give insight of the transmission of TB in a particular region. The present study aimed to characterize the genetic diversity of drug-resistant MTB and evaluate primer sets applied for the epidemiological study of circulating MTB in Northeastern Thailand.

Selecting topic areas for developing quality standards in a resource-limited setting.

Variation in practices of and access to health promotion and disease prevention (P&P) across geographical areas have been studied in Thailand as well as other healthcare settings. The implementation of quality standards (QS)-a concise set of evidence-informed quality statements designed to drive and measure priority quality improvements-can be an option to solve the problem. This paper aims to provide an overview of the priority setting process of topic areas for developing QS and describes the criteria used.