Background: Community pharmacies are accessible healthcare institutions that offer services without the need for appointments or prepayment. In recent years, the scope of pharmacist responsibilities has expanded from merely dispensing medications and medical devices to providing patient-centered pharmaceutical care, health promotion, and disease prevention. As a result, pharmacists are increasingly confronted with ethical challenges in their daily practice. Aim: To identify the ethical issues faced by pharmacists working in community pharmacies in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between March and September 2024 among pharmacists working in community pharmacies in Ulaanbaatar. Participants included 374 pharmacists who had been working for at least three months, held valid professional licenses, and voluntarily agreed to participate. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0. Results: Among the respondents, 339 (90.4%) were female, 301 (80.48%) were pharmacists, and 230 (61.5%) were under 30 years old. Additionally, 214 (57.2%) had worked in a community pharmacy for less than five years. Open-ended responses were coded into three major categories and 15 subcategories: (1) pharmacy management and organization, (2) compliance with laws and regulations, and (3) professional communication with clients. The most frequently reported ethical issues were: Customers demanding prescription-only medications without a valid prescription (56.6%), Negative or inappropriate client behavior (27.5%), Attempts to use expired or invalid prescriptions (14%) Conclusion 1. A total of 56.1% of pharmacists demonstrated insufficient knowledge of the Code of Ethics for healthcare professionals, which is essential for their professional practice. 2. Among pharmacists, 54.5% showed a negative attitude, and 48.9% exhibited inappropriate practices when faced with certain ethical situations. 3. The most common ethical challenges faced by pharmacists include: Requests from clients to dispense prescription-only medicines without a valid prescription (56.6%), Unethical or inappropriate behavior from clients (27.5%), Attempts to obtain medicines using invalid prescriptions (14%).

BackgroundHuman vitamin D status primarily depends on skin exposure to the ultraviolet B (UVB) spectrum of the sunlight.Despite the many days of sunshine in Mongolia, the northern latitute means that much of the UVB is filteredout as it passes through the atmosphere. Studies of Mongolian infants, schoolchildren, and pregnant womenreveal prevalent and profound vitamin D deficiency in the winter months in Mongolia. To date, there has notbeen a single study of the vitamin D levels of Mongolian men, and no studies of working age women outside ofUlaanbaatar. The goal of this study is to determine Vitamin D levels among Mongolian working age populationin different geographical areas, in different seasons, and in different work settings.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted among 120 healthy adults, recruited by a multistage clustersampling method in Ulaanbaatar, South Gobi, and Bulgan. Each participant was tested for serum 25(OH)Dconcentrations, twice in winter and summer. Samples were measured by ELISA. The paired sampling (120summer samples/120 winter samples total 240 samples) frame allowed us to compare an individual’s winter25(OH)D levels to their own summer 25(OH)D levels, avoiding any confounding by differences betweenindividuals. A paired T-test (two sided) with unequal variances was used to test for differences in 25(OH)Dlevels among study groups.Results95% of all participants were Vitamin D deficient (<20 ng/ml) in winter, 24% deficient in summer (p < 0.001).The mean winter serum 25(OH)D levels were (±SD) 10.7±5.3 ng/ml, which were doubled in the summer to(±SD) 26.1±8.1 ng/ml. In all three regions, men and women had similar mean 25(OH)D levels. In Ulaanbaatar,office workers had higher winter 25(OH)D levels than urban outdoor workers. Surprisingly, office workersin the Gobi had higher 25(OH)D levels than nomads in both winter and summer. In Bulgan, there were nodifferences between office workers and nomads in any season.ConclusionWe observe that low vitamin D levels are more prevalent in our winter samples of healthy working age adults.The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is very high amongst the adult population. These data suggest a needto increase vitamin D intake either through improved fortification and/or supplementation.

Background: Medical experts in pharmacies are the most accessible health professionals and play a key role in primary health care. They must strike a balance between their autonomy, the objectives of the company, and professional standards, while facing a lot of ethical dilemmas. This phenomenon can impact the quality of pharmaceutical care, as highlighted in several studies. Numerous studies have been carried out internationally to explore the medical ethics knowledge of pharmacists working in community pharmacies, their attitudes towards emerging ethical issues, and identification of their common problems. However, research in this area is scarce in Mongolia, which serves as the basis for conducting this study. Aim: Assessing the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of pharmacists regarding professional ethics in community pharmacies in Ulaanbaatar city. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted using an analytical cross-sectional study design and included 374 pharmacists who had been working in community pharmacies in Ulaanbaatar for more than three months, had a valid professional license, and consented to participate in the study between March and September 2024 (ethical approval number 2024/3-01). To determine the degree of knowledge, attitude, and practice, a questionnaire including 39 closed questions and 4 groups was used to gather survey data. For statistical analysis, SPSS-25 software was utilized. Results: Of those who took part, 301 (80.48%) were pharmacists, 73 (19.52%) were pharmacy technicians, and 339 (90.4%) were women. Additionally, 259 (69.3%) work in secondary pharmacies, and 305 (81.6%) have received ethics training. The study shows that 56.1% of pharmacists had insufficient knowledge of professional ethics, 54.5% had poor attitudes towards ethical issues, and 48.9% had inappropriate practices. When analyzed in relation to their profession, the ethical knowledge of pharmacists did not differ by profession, age, years of experience in community pharmacies, professional degree, and university graduated, but it was statistically significantly correlated with the participants’ self-assessed ethical knowledge (CL 95%, p=0.0001). Conclusions 1. The knowledge of professional ethical principles and standards is insufficient among pharmacists. 2. While handling emerging ethical issues, they have a negative attitudes and inappropriate practices. Consequently, it is compulsory to intensify training on the ethical code of conduct for medical experts s based on the needs of pharmaceutical professionals.

Introduction: In the United States, Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) is considered one of the top five pathogens causing domestically acquired foodborne diseases and is responsible for an estimate of 241,000 illnesses per year. Foods that have been frequently implicated in Staphylococcal food-borne disease are meat, meat products, egg products, milk, dairy products, salads and bakery products. β-lactam antibiotics are routinely prescribed for treating S. aureus caused infections, but antibiotic resistance is increasing at an alarming rate. Aim: Detection of virulence factors and antibiotic resistance in S.aureus isolated from retail beef Materials and Methods : A total of 100 meat samples were collected from markets including Kharkhorin 28, Bars 4, Bayanzurkh 15, Huchit shonkhor 33, Denjiin myanga 4 and Bumbugur 16. S.aureus strains were determined on the basis of MNS 6308:2012 standard using Baird-Parker selective agar and confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in retail beefs. Bacterial susceptibility to antimicrobial agents determined by the Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method. Results: Overall, 81% meat samples were contaminated with staphylococcal of which 54.3% were low, 28% were moderate, 11.1% were high and 6.1% were very high. PCR amplification of the thermostable nuclease-encoding nuc gene using the gene-specific primers and the chromosomal DNA preparation yielded a 270 bp amplicon, as expected and 35 (43.2%) confirmed as S. aureus. According to the findings of the current study, S.aureus strains isolated from the beef were high resistant (88.6% -97.1%) to antibiotics of penicillins group and low resistant (8.6%) to chloramphenicol. In total, 48.6% of isolates were multidrug resistant. Conclusion The contamination of staphylococcal was high in retail beef in Ulaanbaatar. Most S.aureus isolates exhibited resistance to a antibiotics of penicillin group. The half of the isolates were multidrug resistant and high virulence.

Background: The ichthyosis is a hereditary skin disease and inherited by autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive and X recessive trait separately. The X-linked ichthyosis (XLI) is the most frequent cutaneous disease and general incidence accounts for one in 2000-5000 male births. Molecular pathogenesis of XLI is due to mutations, which are large deletion, missense, frame shift and nonsense in STS gene. The vast majority of mutation frequency is a large deletion, which are found in 85-90% of patients with XLI. An exon deletion of the STS can be detected by Polymerase chain reaction with exon specific primers. An identification of STS gene mutation has various importance such as 1) detection of mutation type; 2) for genetic counselling, 3) disease severity, 4) carrier detection. Methods: In the present study, pedigree analysis was used for type of inheritance, and Polymerase chain reaction was used to detect a deletion in STS gene and normal control used. A deletion was identified in case PCR bands were not visualized in agarose gels. Results: We included one patient, who had typical symptoms of XLI including dark, adherent scales on skin. Mutation analysis of the STS gene showed that the patient had whole gene deletion (del: Exon 1-10), which was demonstrated by the repeated amplification failure of exons. We used a sample of healthy man as a wild type control, which showed normal amplification of STS gene’s exons. Further, the current study will be focused on the screening of heterozygote large deletion of Del: Exon1-10 of STS gene among patient’s female relatives. Conclusion An ichthyosis case enrolled in this study was inherited by X-recessive and we identified whole exon deletion of STS gene in this patient.