Tag: AKU

Karachi, August 07, 2021 (PPI-OT):​A cross-border anti-misinformation initiative led by Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications (GSMC) has been selected by the Paris Peace Forum (PPF) to be showcased at its upcoming conference in November 2021.

The PPF is a global initiative that seeks to bring together hundreds of government leaders and civil society actors from around the world to solve some of the world’s biggest governance problems such as the COVID-19 crisis, gender inequality, threats to the global commons, ways to improve the digital world, and steps to fight fake news and threats to the press.

GSMC’s Informed Society Initiative is designed to counter mis-​and dis-information about critical global issues, such as health and vaccines, climate change, and violence against minorities. It is one of 30 projects from the Global South that the PFF says demonstrate “that in a deteriorated international environment it is still possible to advance governance solutions, scale-up project and launch new initiatives,” according to a PPF statement.

“As a communications school that is part of a global development organisation, we believe there is nothing we can do that is more important than battling the ‘Infodemic’ of false information that threatens the very fabric of society,” said Professor Lawrence Pintak, Dean of GSMC.

The Informed Society Initiative involves an array of activities aimed at helping journalists in East Africa and South Asia prevent the spread of false information. These include the development of media literacy curricula to be taught at the primary, secondary and university levels, and training for teachers in media and digital literacy. The project is currently in its pilot stage, with journalist trainings taking place in East Africa and a teacher training in Pakistan, in partnership with AKU’s Institute of Educational Development, IED.

“The Paris Peace Forum’s recognition of this GSMC project underscores the important real-world impact AKU has on the societies in which we operate,” said AKU President Firoz Rasul. Other partners in the overarching initiative include the University of Washington, George Washington University, NOVA Lisbon, The Hertie Public Policy School in Berlin, and two international civic technology organisations, Meedan and Code4Africa.

“Greater access to online platforms creates both the possibility of sophisticated forms of indoctrination and an opportunity for reflective, informed and imaginative education. Which way the tide will turn will depend, in part, on how our capacity to navigate knowledge claims is strengthened,” observed IED’s Dean, Dr Farid Panjwani. The Paris Peace Forum was founded in 2018 by the president of France and brings together some of the world’s most influential civil society and philanthropic organisations, including the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).​

For more information, contact:
Media Executive
Department of Public Affairs
Aga Khan University (AKU)
Stadium Road, Karachi
Tel: +92-21-34930051
Fax: +92-21-34934294, +92-21-34932095
Cell: +92-301-8258028
Email: rasool.sarang@aku.edu, public.affairs@aku.edu​
Website: www.aku.edu

Karachi, July 30, 2021 (PPI-OT):The government of Gilgit-Baltistan, GB, and Aga Khan University have signed a memorandum of understanding that will lead to the formal adoption and deployment of the University’s mobile health application and web portal, Hayat, into the region’s routine health services.

Hayat allows lady health workers, LHWs, community midwives and immunisation staff to instantly log details of mother and child health services provided during field visits and to more effectively raise awareness about preventable diseases.

At the system level, the app’s web portal enables health care supervisors and government officials to access essential information in real-time on the performance of health workers and campaigns. It also provides detailed reports and data to inform evidence-based decision making and policy.

Over 114,000 children and adolescents, and over 200,000 adults in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have benefited from services delivered through the Hayat digital health platform since its introduction in 2018 via a partnership between AKU, Aga Khan Health Services – the implementing partner of the project – and the GB government.

The GB government will now take over responsibility for operating the digital platform in the district of Ghizer. The agreement will also see the government replace existing paper-based processes for key reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services – such as vaccinations, antenatal care, nutrition and preventive health services, postnatal care, child growth monitoring and family planning – with systems using Hayat’s infrastructure.

Speaking about Hayat’s impact, a lady health supervisor working in Ghizer said: “What I find most exciting is the availability of all paper-based forms and checklists in a digital format in Hayat. It helps me complete my tasks in no time.”

The digital health application will be powered by a data centre based in Gilgit that was voluntarily established by the University and has now been handed over to the local government at no cost. The initiative will aid the government’s plans to digitise the health system in order to enhance the efficiency, transparency and accountability of the provision of health services.

“Gilgit-Baltistan is committed to raising key maternal, neonatal and child health indicators,” said GB Health Secretary Mir Waqar Ahmed. “The Hayat app will now be our primary means to collect, store and evaluate data about the health system’s performance. We are also considering the rollout of the app in two more districts in Gilgit-Baltistan.”

Prior to the introduction of Hayat, GB’s lady health workers and immunisation staff faced challenges in coordinating with one another. LHWs would share details about children who needed vaccinations with their colleagues through paper-based systems which often led to late vaccinations and children being missed during campaigns. In contrast, the Hayat app ensures automatic and immediate coordination between health workers which has ensured that more children in Ghizer receive recommended vaccinations within 48 hours of birth.

Speaking about the Hayat app, a vaccinator in Ghizer, GB, said: “With the app in place, we can keep a track of (vaccine) defaulters and reach out to them to get their due vaccinations. Even if the family is not in the village, I can still call them and inquire about the due vaccination status. This has not only helped me perform my duties well, but also enabled the clients to trust me and my recommendations.”

“Hayat has effectively demonstrated the immense potential of digital health interventions in strengthening health systems,” said AKU President Firoz Rasul. “The University looks forward to continued collaborations with health departments across the region to enhance the adoption, coverage, scale-up and integration of initiatives that can help achieve health targets under the sustainable development goals.”

“Public-private partnerships enable innovations to be implemented at scale,” said Saleem Sayani, director of AKU’s Technology Innovation Support Centre and the project’s principal investigator. “We are glad to be working with a partner that shares our belief in the power of technology to enhance access to quality healthcare.”

Hayat has been rolled out in health facilities across Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2018 but this is the first time that a government has agreed to incorporate the app in its operations and to ensure its sustainability by including its operational costs in its budget. The University is currently in discussions with the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan to roll out the system in more districts.

The app’s development was jointly funded by Grand Challenges Canada and the Aga Khan Foundation Canada. In addition to Hayat, Aga Khan Health Services has been collaborating with AKU on multiple digital health projects in northern Pakistan with an emphasis on maternal, neonatal and child health services, and immunisation programmes.

For more information, contact:
Media Executive
Department of Public Affairs
Aga Khan University (AKU)
Stadium Road, Karachi
Tel: +92-21-34930051
Fax: +92-21-34934294, +92-21-34932095
Cell: +92-301-8258028
Email: rasool.sarang@aku.edu, public.affairs@aku.edu​
Website: www.aku.edu

Karachi, July 27, 2021 (PPI-OT):“Dental care is about much more than just emergency care,” says student Elia Nasim of AKU’s Associate of Science in Dental Hygiene programme. Elia hails from a village in the Garam Chashma Valley in Chitral in northern Pakistan, where she’s witnessed how most people only pay attention to their oral health when the pain becomes intolerable.

“They rush to the dentist and just want to remove the cause of their pain. They rarely ask themselves what caused the pain or how they can avoid such a situation in the future,” she says. Elia’s academic and career ambitions have been deeply influenced by the experiences of friends and family in her hometown. She remembers her own mother frequently warning her about the dangers of taking daily oral hygiene for granted. “When I was a child, my mother would tell me over and over again: ‘You will only know the value of teeth when you lose them.’”

Her mother’s warnings came from painful, personal experience as she needed to have all her teeth removed due to the searing pain of sensitive teeth. Looking back, she remembers how her mother’s oral health challenges changed the family’s routine with her elder sister putting off her studies to cook a soft diet for her mother, her father frequently accompanying her mother to the hospital, and Elia herself constantly reassuring her mother that everything would work out for the best.

Thankfully, dentures have helped Elia’s mother return to leading a normal life but other people in her village haven’t been so fortunate. Elia recalls how a 60-year-old resident of her village lost his life due to poor infection control practices shortly after a procedure to treat oral cancer at the local clinic.

“The death was shocking news for us all and it really made me think about the underlying causes of the oral health challenges around us. Uncle’s case was by no means unique.” Oral cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer among men in Pakistan and the consumption of naswar, an addictive form of chewable tobacco, is a visible habit in the area. It is also common for children and adults to consume paan, betel leaf and areca nut, that damage the teeth and to avoid regularly brushing their teeth.

Through her degree, Elia has learned about the causes of prominent oral diseases and gained experience in conducting infection control procedures such as sterilising instruments and using gloves during procedures. While she’s keen to gain more experience in the clinic, she’s also interested in acting as an advocate for preventive healthcare.

“So much pain and so much disease can be avoided if people just gave a few minutes of time to their dental health every day,” says Elia. After completing her studies, Elia is determined to return to her hometown to address another gap in the healthcare system.

“I remember overhearing a conversation in a clinic between two women that had a great impact on me. They were discussing how they avoided visiting the dentist as they felt uncomfortable being treated by a man. There are currently no women dental practitioners in my area, and by returning home I hope to not only address this issue but to also look at the wider problems in my community.

“Dental hygienists are educated to play many roles as clinicians, educators, community outreach workers, preventive healthcare advocates and administrators. My education has opened my eyes to the full scope of a career as a dental hygienist and I’m keen on playing as many roles as I can to encourage people around me to prioritise their oral health.”

For more information, contact:
Media Executive
Department of Public Affairs
Aga Khan University (AKU)
Stadium Road, Karachi
Tel: +92-21-34930051
Fax: +92-21-34934294, +92-21-34932095
Cell: +92-301-8258028
Email: rasool.sarang@aku.edu, public.affairs@aku.edu​
Website: www.aku.edu

Karachi, July 13, 2021 (PPI-OT):Public health researchers are set to evaluate the feasibility of a faster way to detect new cases of COVID-19 in Karachi. Infectious disease epidemiologists from Aga Khan University, the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, and the World Health Organization’s Pakistan Office will collaborate with Karachi’s District Health Office, East, to pilot a sewage surveillance system that will regularly test wastewater samples for the presence of the coronavirus and its concentration.

They are building on work by health authorities in several countries such as the US, Canada, Australia and several European nations to set up extensive sewage surveillance systems. These systems have helped detect high concentrations of the virus in sewage a week to ten days before cases would rise, enabling public health authorities to take prompt action to contain the spread of the disease.

Sewage surveillance systems take advantage of the fact that the presence of viruses can be identified in sewage before a person shows symptoms. For example, people can shed SARS CoV-2 in their stool in the first 3 to 7 days after infection, long before a person begins to suffer from a fever, cough or shortness of breath. This means that wastewater sampling has the potential to act as a sensitive, early warning system for trends in new cases and a potential way to prevent new cases. That’s because nasal swab tests, which detect the presence of the virus in the nose, are typically only taken after symptoms appear, between 7 and ten days after infection, which means that people could have unknowingly been spreading the disease for days before their positive test.

Researchers will analyse the amount of SARS CoV-2 particles per millilitre of filtered sewage to estimate the number of cases in the area. They hope to generate data that will help them estimate future number of cases in a well demarcated catchment area by measuring viral concentration in sewage samples.

If analysis of sewage samples shows a continuous increase in the presence of SARS CoV-2 particles then this could predict an uptick in cases before COVID-19 nasal swab test results become available, thereby giving public health departments and hospitals advance notice of a surge in cases.

Data about the quantum of the virus in wastewater will also be compared with records from the district health office about the number and location of positive tests in the area to prepare heat maps of high and low incidence areas. This could enable prompter preventive measures such as mass testing or targeted lockdowns to be taken in high-burden areas. Conversely, the data could also help provide an indication of a forthcoming decline in new cases which could inform policy decisions such as the easing of restrictions.

“Insights from sewage surveillance can help us get ahead of the virus and take more effective measures to curb new cases,” said Dr Imran Nisar, assistant professor at AKU and principal investigator of the study. “No one knows when this pandemic will end but new tools such as wastewater analysis can potentially make mitigation measures more effective.”

Researchers also plan to compare data about the number of vaccinations in the area against the volume of cases to understand the effectiveness of vaccine drives. In later phases of the project, researchers will conduct genetic sequencing of wastewater samples to determine whether new COVID-19 variants have arrived in the city. This could signal the need to ramp up prevention measures or consider changes in precautionary measures, treatments or vaccine roll-out plans.

“Lockdowns have enormous social and economic consequences,” said Dr Nisar. “Comparing data from our sewage surveillance study with clinical and epidemiological data from the community will enable us to halt the cycle of surges leading to lockdowns by enabling policymakers to take prompter, more effective decisions. Throughout the study, we’ll be working closely with the district health office to ensure timely use of data.”

Once researchers have assessed the feasibility of the system in Karachi, they hope to be able to scale up the programme at the provincial and national level. The initiative has been funded by Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, USA and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USA.

For more information, contact:
Media Executive
Department of Public Affairs
Aga Khan University (AKU)
Stadium Road, Karachi
Tel: +92-21-34930051
Fax: +92-21-34934294, +92-21-34932095
Cell: +92-301-8258028
Email: rasool.sarang@aku.edu, public.affairs@aku.edu​
Website: www.aku.edu

Karachi, July 09, 2021 (PPI-OT):Aga Khan University’s Medical College has signed an agreement with the World Health Organisation, Pakistan that seeks to raise standards of practice in Family Medicine across Pakistan.

Family Medicine practitioners cater to the health needs of people of all ages and gender across the lifespan. They offer comprehensive care which not only includes management of acute and chronic diseases, but also incorporates health promotion and disease prevention. In Pakistan, eight out of ten patients seek care from General Practitioners, who often enter the workforce right after undergraduate education, and have to learn on the job while caring for patients.

Recognizing that most General Practitioners are unable to enrol in structured training, the Department of Family Medicine launched the one-year certification course, FamMed Essentials, in 2019 to offer busy practitioners the ability to update their knowledge and enhance their skills.

FamMed Essentials’ curriculum comprises five modules: paediatric and adolescent care; reproductive health and genitourinary concerns; non-communicable diseases; infectious diseases population health; and common surgical, rheumatologic and dermatologic issues faced in primary care. The modules are followed by a five-day hands-on skills training at the Centre for Innovation in Medical Education (CIME). The modular and blended learning style of the course allows busy practitioners to continue working while learning; while robust assessments prepare participants for further qualifying medical tests and examinations.

There are almost 100 beneficiaries to date, comprising general physicians, family physicians, final-year medical students, and master-level nursing students who plan to become advanced nurse practitioners in the field.

WHO projects that scaling up primary healthcare by strengthening Family Medicine could save 60 million lives in low and middle-income countries while increasing average life expectancy by 3.7 years by 2030. ​

WHO’s endorsement of FamMed Essentials recognises the importance of Family Medicine and the need for capacity building initiatives to help achieve health targets under the sustainable development goals, particularly targets 3.4 and 3.D​

For more information, contact:
Media Executive
Department of Public Affairs
Aga Khan University (AKU)
Stadium Road, Karachi
Tel: +92-21-34930051
Fax: +92-21-34934294, +92-21-34932095
Cell: +92-301-8258028
Email: rasool.sarang@aku.edu, public.affairs@aku.edu​
Website: www.aku.edu

Karachi, June 30, 2021 (PPI-OT):Innovative gene editing therapies for two significant blood disorders, beta thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia, have received a boost with AKU’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, CRM, winning a competitive research grant of Rs 159.60 million (US$ 1.02 m) to look for a genetic ‘fix’.

Thalassemia and sickle cell disease are genetic disorders, passed down from parent to child, and common in Pakistan. There are as many as 100,000 transfusion dependent thalassemia patients in the country. Every year another 5,000 babies are born with the disorder. On the other hand, sickle-cell disease is one of the well-known causes of anaemia in Pakistan.

Doctors and research scientists are aware that mutations in the haemoglobin beta-globin, HBB, gene cause both diseases. Patients suffer from a lack of haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to rest of the body; and a lack of oxygen in the body’s tissues can lead to poor growth, organ damage and other health problems.

The only treatments available are blood transfusions or bone marrow transplants, both with drawbacks and side effects. Blood transfusion often leads to iron overload and organ damage. Bone marrow transplant is a costly, risky and invasive treatment available only to patients who can find suitable donors with matching blood stem cells. Also, limited bone marrow transplantation facilities and expertise within Pakistan mean that most patients cannot access this treatment.

Given these challenges, researchers around the world are looking at new gene and cell repair therapies for a treatment and potentially a cure. “Our research aims to find an innovative, less-invasive and more affordable cure for these common genetic diseases,” says AKU’s Dr Afsar Mian, the study’s principal investigator. “Our team aspires to work on two gene editing therapies that will be applicable to both, beta thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia.”

In the first approach, AKU researchers will work on developing a druggable gene editing therapy, using CRISPR/Cas9, a molecular gene editing tool. Unlike existing gene therapies, this new therapy could be injected as a drug to allow the defective part of the HBB gene to be ‘sniped’ and repaired for beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease.

Dr Mian is excited about this research work: “Our team will be among the few researchers around the globe who are working on developing this gene editing approach. Better still, conducting this study in Pakistan will help build local capacity and solutions, instead of waiting for treatments from elsewhere.”

Emergent gene and cell therapies are now seen as having the most potential to impact healthcare in the coming years. “This potential therapy could provide a permanent cure, bypassing the need for bone marrow transplant and blood transfusion” says Professor El-Nasir Lalani, founding director of CRM.

The second therapy involves reactivating the production of foetal haemoglobin as a substitute for the missing or faulty adult haemoglobin in beta thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia. Dr Mian and his team will work on gene-silencing, using the same gene editing tool and approach, suppressing the BCL11A gene that stops foetal haemoglobin from being produced.

Both concepts will be first tested in the laboratory, using stem cells that have the potential to form any cell type in the body, drawn from thalassemia and sickle-cell patients. If successful, this will be followed by pre-clinical trials to determine if the treatment is safe.

The study team includes Drs Afsar Mian, Salma Jahan, Hammad Hassan and Mohammed Yusuf from CRM and international collaborators from the University of California, San Francisco, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Cardiff University in the UK.

The World Bank-supported HEC Grand Challenge Fund, launched in 2020, aims to promote research excellence in strategic sectors with awards based on competitive, peer-reviewed evaluation of proposals. CRM is one of the five winning recipients, out of more than 700 applicants in the fund’s inaugural round.

For more information, contact:
Media Executive
Department of Public Affairs
Aga Khan University (AKU)
Stadium Road, Karachi
Tel: +92-21-34930051
Fax: +92-21-34934294, +92-21-34932095
Cell: +92-301-8258028
Email: rasool.sarang@aku.edu, public.affairs@aku.edu
Website: www.aku.edu