The Lancet Series on Childhood Pneumonia and Diarrhoea, led by Aga Khan University, Pakistan, provides evidence for integrated control efforts for childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea. The first paper assesses the global burden of these two illnesses, comparing and contrasting them, and includes new estimates of severe disease and updated mortality estimates for 2011. Findings from […]
Zulfiqar Bhutta, PhD Noordin Noormahomed Sheriif Endowed Professor Founding Chair of the Division of Women and Child Health Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan This talk summarizes the genesis and key recommendations of the Lancet Commission on Education for Health Professionals in the 21st Century (2010). Dr. Bhutta will share some thoughts on the issues and […]
WESTPORT, CT–(Marketwire – January 14, 2011) – A Pakistan-based study to be published Saturday in the Lancet achieved a significant drop in newborn deaths and could be widely applicable in high-mortality countries, Save the Children and other authors said. More than 3 million newborns die annually. Well-known lifesaving interventions remain out of reach for most […]
The health impacts of the catastrophic floods in Pakistan are highlighted in a Podcast and Comment by Professor Zulfi Bhutta, Aga Khan University, Pakistan. As the flood waters recede, the risk of cholera outbreaks and other communicable diseases rise; the priorities for the relief effort are food supplies, clean water, and sanitation, to try and […]
The first rule of any self-respecting target is that it should remain static. In this, the millennium development goals (MDGs) have performed admirably since their inception in 2000. But what happens if our understanding of how to meet a target changes? Should we shift the goalposts accordingly? The publication in Friday’s Lancet of a series […]
27 April 2011 (IRIN) – Preventing stillbirths can cost just US$2.32 per mother if governments, the private sector and international institutions adopt a package of 10 health interventions, rather than allowing stillbirths to be an almost invisible problem. If ten recommended interventions were 99 percent implemented in 68 priority [low and middle-income] countries, the number […]
Recently, The Lancet published a piece that proves that these same cost-effective, low-tech, community-based interventions I saw in Shivgarh can be effective as part of a country’s regular health system. The government of Pakistan, in partnership with the Aga Khan University and Save the Children, trained its community-based, frontline public health workers, called Lady Health […]
via blog post: The summer of 2008, when electives for the medical students were announced, several students found it surprising that a medical college elective would be titled ‘Rhythms in Evolution’. A primary intent of the said elective was to allow the interested students an exploration of their musical talent and the possibility of its […]
300,000 Newborns Die in Pakistan Every Year In Pakistan, 5.5 million babies are born every year, out of whom, 300,000 die before completing their first month of life. Worldwide, the number of newborn deaths amounts to four million annually, 75 per cent occurring in the first week after birth. Medical experts have reported in the […]
A international epidemic of maternal and childhood malnutrition accounts for more than one-third of childhood deaths and 11 percent of the world’s disease burden, researchers report. “The key messages here are that the international nutrition system is fragmented and dysfunctional, and reform is needed,” lead researcher Dr. Robert Black, a professor at the Johns Hopkins […]
By Dr. Robert Armstrong Associate Professor and Head, Department of Pediatrics Can you imagine that you are the parent of a delightful four-year-old girl who yesterday was full of life, but today is going to die? You are desperate for help and devastated as life is slowly snatched from her. Can you imagine your confusion, […]
