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By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The renowned physicians working in major hospitals of Pakistan have sent a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, raising serious concerns on the growing tobacco epidemic in the country.  “Cigarette smoking kills more than 100,000 people every year in the country. This death toll is far greater in number than total deaths taking place as a result of suicidal bombings, traffic accidents and crime related killings,” Prof Javaid Khan, Chair. National Alliance for Tobacco Control and Professor of Medicine at the Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi, submitted in the petition.  “We, the doctors, see the victims of tobacco every day in their clinical practice and are very concerned on the growing mortality and morbidity due to tobacco use in the country,” he remarked.  Prof Javaid Khan warned that failure to control tobacco use in the country would be a health and economic disaster for the country. ...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Administrator Karachi District East, Rehmatullah Shaikh, visited the Heat Stroke Treatment Centre set up by the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, at its campus and lauded the university’s initiative.  At the centre he was received by the SSUET Registrar, Syed Sarfraz Ali, who took him around and informed that it was established to take care of the university students in case of any heat stroke incident during heightened temperatures.  He shared with the Administrator that, on the directives of Chancellor Jawaid Anwar, the centre besides taking care of the university students, it will also cater to the needs of any heat stroke victim from outside the campus. Administrator Rehmatullah Shaikh inquired about the condition of a victim and said that it was appreciative that the university has taken such an initiative.  He said although the temperature...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi  (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Chancellor of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, Jawaid Anwar, has remarked that no country can ever develop until it is free of corruption with discipline having been infused in every sector of the society. “A disciplined society can only be guaranteed when sectors like education and sports are freed from corruption and a heavy dose of discipline injected,” he said while talking to a group of journalists at his office.  “We at the SSUET have fully focused to achieve the cherished objectives by fully concentrating on improving the standard of education with greater focus on promoting disciplined sports,” he observed.  Chancellor Jawaid Anwar said that there’s a big gap between certified work force like doctors, engineers, technologists and scientists, and non-certified work force like plumbers, diploma holders and similar other professions and ...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) A brand new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit was inaugurated at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Karachi, on May 23. Specially designed to treat children fighting life-threatening diseases, the new 5,500 square foot, Rs 200 million, eight-bed facility will facilitate many more infants, toddlers and pre-teens whose fragile health requires special attention.  A quick glance at Pakistan’s child mortality rates highlights the urgent need for dedicated facilities to treat children facing complicated diseases.  One in 11 children die before their fifth birthday and one in 66 infants lose their lives before the age of one, according to Unicef’s State of Children in Pakistan report. Over the past five years, the university’s teaching hospital at Stadium Road, Karachi, has noticed a three-fold increase in children requiring intensive care.  The new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) wil...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Up to one in five adults in Pakistan has chronic kidney disease, which has become one of the rapidly escalating causes of death. Patients with advanced CKD require dialysis or transplantation, unaffordable for the vast majority of people. A research paper published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology revealed that simple and inexpensive public health interventions could help prevent many cases of CKD.  As part of a two-year study conducted at Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, researchers Professor Tazeen Jafar, Health Services & Systems Research at Duke NUS Medical School in Singapore and Duke Global Health Institute in Durham, and Visiting Consultant Nephrologist, Singapore General Hospital, and Dr Imtiaz Jehan, Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences at AKU observed more than 1,200 individuals with high blood pressure.  The intervention included train...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Vice Chancellor of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Prof Dr Jawed H Rizvi, visited the Heat Stroke Treatment Centre established by the university within its campus.  The SSUET took a lead over other universities with the establishment of a Heat Stroke Treatment Centre which was inaugurated by the SSUET Chancellor, Jawaid Anwar, on May 19.  With the temperature continuously soaring, alongwith humidity, the centre has been equipped with necessary facilities and is supervised by doctors and paramedical staff of the university's Medical Centre round the clock. During the visit the SSUET Registrar, Syed Sarfraz Ali, and Dr Mohammad Taufiq briefed the Vice Chancellor about the salient features of the centre.  Accompanied by university officials, the Vice Chancellor also inquired about the condition of a student, having been admitted in the centre.  ...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, has taken a lead over other educational institutions by having set up a heatstroke treatment centre within the campus premises on the directives of its Chancellor Jawaid Anwar. It may be recalled that the city of Karachi had endured its most oppressive summer in decades last year which caused heavy casualties. As preemptive measures, some organizations have made arrangements and the SSUET has led by example by creating the much-needed facility at its campus.  With the temperature continuously soaring and the humidity also on the rise, the centre has been equipped with necessary facilities and is being supervised by doctors and paramedical staff of the university's Medical Center round the clock.  The center was visited by Chancellor Jawaid Anwar, who appreciated the efforts made in this regard and observed that it was refl...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The speakers highlighted the threats posed by global health crises and the role of nurses and midwives in keeping Pakistan’s health system resilient in the face of new risks at a symposium to commemorate International Nurses and Midwives Day at the Aga Khan University, Karachi. In a world that is vulnerable to disease outbreaks such as the current mosquito-borne Zika virus spreading across Latin America, swine flu and last year’s Ebola virus pandemic in West Africa, and where climate change is leaving populations exposed to soaring temperatures and natural disasters, care from well-prepared nurses and midwives can save lives.  “As nurses, we need to be thinking ahead of our role during disease outbreaks or natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes,” Salma Jaffer, chief nursing officer at AKU, remarked.  “We are at the front line of providing treatment to affected people, communicating r...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, is all set to launch new courses in near future with ;Management Sciences’ being on top of the list. "The new course of Management Sciences, to include MBA and BBA, will start after its formal approval by the university's Academic Council and finally 'go ahead' from the Board of Governors,” the SSUET Vice-Chancellor, Prof Dr Jawaid H Rizvi, in an interview.  The Vice-Chancellor pointed out that the university, having started with only two technologies of Computer and Electronic Engineering in 1994, now had as many as 10 disciplines with three technologies of Electrical, Architecture and Software Engineering having been added in 2014 while its enrollment grew from 200 students to over 6,043 students in 2016.  “We started with just a couple of technologies but now we have expanded the programme to 10 new departments. We ...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Decades of neglect and chronic underinvestment have had serious detrimental effects on the health and wellbeing of adolescents aged 10–24 years, according to a major new Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing.  The Commission brings together 30 of the world’s leading experts from 14 countries, including Professor Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Founding Director of the Aga Khan University’s Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health and co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health in Toronto, and two young health advocates, led by four academic institutions: the University of Melbourne, Australia; University College London, UK; the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK; and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, USA.  “Given the burgeoning number of young people in Pakistan, both boys and girls, it is imperative that they play an active role in nation...