Shehri TV – Pakistan News, Current Affairs, Entertainment

  By Abdul Qadir Qureshi   (Pakistan News & Features Services) The participants at a policy dialogue organized by the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development advocated for a teaching license can help certify that a teacher has the skills and knowledge needed for effective classroom practice. The dialogue aimed to raise awareness, gather evidence and make technical recommendations on the possibility of introducing a teaching license in Pakistan. Such a certification can serve to enhance teaching quality and, subsequently, students’ learning.  A teaching license can also raise the professional status of teachers and open new employment opportunities for them locally as well as abroad.  One of the keynote speakers, Dr Linda Darling-Hammond, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, drew upon the history of the medical profession to highlight the long struggle that it underwent before it arrived at its current state. Likewise, she felt...

  By Abdul Qadir Qureshi   (Pakistan News & Features Services) As part of preparations for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, a film series Voices from the Roof of the World (VRW) has been launched on TV and online.  A joint initiative by the Aga Khan Development Network agencies, Aga Khan University, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, Aga Khan Foundation and University of Central Asia, the 10-episode first season has been produced by filmmakers from Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and India.  The series focuses on the climate crisis in the earth’s highest mountain region from the Pamirs to the Himalayan Mountains. Home to 240 million people and countless rare and endangered species, these mountains are also the largest depository of ice outside the polar ice caps, providing water to a quarter of the world's population. “With VRW support and tutelage, these filmmakers have captured poignant personal stories of people and cultures ...

  By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Pakistan has too few diabetes specialists to treat the nearly 19.4 million people suffering from the disease according to the experts who spoke at a seminar at the Aga Khan University (AKU) held to announce the launch of a six-month certificate course in diabetes that seeks to expand access to the knowledge and skills needed to treat and manage the disease. The course, set to begin from January 2021, will offer the most updated and evidence-based knowledge to manage patients. The country has only one specialist, also known as an endocrinologist, for every 200,000 diabetes patients, according to Pakistan Endocrine Society. Similar shortfalls in training and awareness of diabetes are present at all levels of our healthcare system, speakers added.  The current deficits in managing the illness, which has no symptoms, mean that many patients often seek care when they are suffering from advanced complications from the ...

  By Abdul Qadir Qureshi  (Pakistan News & Features Services) Introducing advanced practice nursing, particularly in countries with fragile healthcare systems, will be crucial to meeting the ever-increasing needs of patients and improving health outcomes said experts at a two-day virtual conference organized by the Aga Khan University Schools of Nursing and Midwifery in Pakistan and East Africa.  The current COVID-19 pandemic has placed nurses in the spotlight and revealed the need for nursing expertise and experience as never before. In 2020, the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, governments and healthcare institutions are being called on to support, empower and advance the nursing profession.  Advanced practice nursing, APN, is one of the most efficient ways of delivering high-quality, affordable and patient-focused care, accessible especially to those vulnerable groups and populations living in the remotest communities where other healthcare pro...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Brain tumors have one of the lowest survival rates of all types of cancer in Pakistan yet there is little research into the prevalence of the disease, success of different treatment options and ways to improve patient outcomes, the speakers at the inaugural symposium of the Pakistan Society of Neuro-oncology (PASNO) noted at the Aga Khan University (AKU) noted. The members of PASNO, a multidisciplinary platform spanning researchers, surgeons, oncologists, allied health professionals and basic scientists in the field of neuro-oncology, discussed preliminary findings of a nationwide study that will gather data from close to 50 collaborating centers and will eventually include the treatment history of up to 10,000 patients.  Preliminary findings from the study suggested that Pakistan doesn’t have as many high-grade tumors as the developed world. However, patients of brain cancer tend to be of a younger ag...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) More than 9 out of 10 people infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) experience have had no symptoms of the disease, a new study, carried out by the Aga Khan University (AKU) researchers, revealed. Karachi has the most COVID-19 cases in Pakistan and the study saw AKU faculty investigate COVID-19’s prevalence in parts of the city with high and low rates of transmission in the community in April and June 2020.  They found out that 95 percent of those who tested positive for COVID-19 through blood tests, which register the presence of antibodies to fight the disease, reported feeling no symptoms of the illness such as a cough, fever or sore throat. In other words, they were asymptomatic.  The proportion of asymptomatic cases in Pakistan is much higher than the developed world. Since asymptomatic people do not seek hospital treatment this may help explain why Pakistan’s hospitals have not been under ...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Over 1,250 high school students from over a hundred cities across Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates took part in a weeklong series of virtual, medical research courses organised by Aga Khan University’s Student Research Forum, SRF.  The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted high school education around the world and has given teenage students the time and opportunity to enhance their skills in a variety of areas such as research and academic writing.  For many participants, this was their first chance to gain an insight into how to conduct research that generates knowledge in novel areas of medicine and helps physicians assess the value of different types of treatment.  "The world of research can be intimidating to many young students. Cost represents another barrier as online courses on research skills have high registration and certifi...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Three out of four Pakistani adults are suffering from moderate or high levels of stress during this COVID-19 pandemic while nearly one in three are experiencing moderate or severe anxiety, according to the preliminary findings of a mental health study conducted by the Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi.  The researchers from the department of community health sciences (CHS) conducted an online survey of 373 respondents between April and May, the study’s first phase, using validated screening tools to determine if people had generalized anxiety disorder, perceived stress or both conditions. More than 90 per cent of the participants were from Sindh and Punjab.  The respondents ranked the top three causes of anxiety and stress as being fear of contracting the virus, financial losses during the pandemic and losing a loved one to COVID-19.  The survey participants were much more concerned about ...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services)  The Aga Khan University (AKU) has partnered with a range of organizations to launch free, online capacity building sessions for parents of children with mental health issues and developmental disorders whose treatment has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The initiative brings together professionals from across the country including developmental paediatricians, speech and occupational therapists, child psychiatrists, paediatric psychologists and student volunteers. The sessions will see parents receive training on how to deliver rehabilitative care and essential therapies at home if they are unable to access the usual support. For example, instructors will guide parents on how to provide therapies to help children with developmental delays to improve their functional independence, and assist parents in managing behavioural issues that have emerged during the pandemic. Direct sessions betwe...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) A new study by researchers at Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi, has highlighted the need to improve ways to diagnose and treat pneumonia, a leading cause of death in children under five around the world.  The Pakistan-based study, RETAPP, is the world’s largest community-based assessment of the use or withholding of antibiotics in children with mild pneumonia. Pneumonia is a lung disease caused by viral or bacterial infections. It is especially common in low and middle income countries like Pakistan where malnutrition is prevalent and vaccine coverage is low.  There are currently different views on the use of antibiotics for treating the diseases. While global guidelines recommend the use of antibiotics, two leading infectious diseases societies in North America, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, advise against the use of antibiotic...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) A new clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of plasma therapy, an emerging form of treatment for the coronavirus, in Pakistani COVID-19 patients is underway at the Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi.  Convalescent plasma therapy involves separating blood donated by previous COVID-19 patients into plasma, a clear straw-coloured liquid, that contains antibodies and proteins that help fight infections.  The plasma is then injected into a severely ill COVID-19 patient whose immune system may not be able to generate the antibodies needed to combat the virus. A single donation can potentially treat two patients. There is currently no vaccine for the coronavirus and no approved form of treatment beyond managing its symptoms. The trial will generate evidence on whether plasma therapy, the only experimental treatment currently available for the virus, can help treat those suffering from acute complications fro...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Aga Khan University’s Medical College has introduced a new COVID-19 course for students in all five years of its undergraduate programme in medicine and surgery (MBBS).  The six-week course will provide students with the latest research and evidence on the structure of the disease, its development and spread, and ways to prevent and manage the coronavirus in hospital and community settings.  “The current health crisis is unprecedented, and requires us to adapt our curriculum to provide our graduates with the necessary skill set required to deal with pandemics in general, and COVID-19 in particular,” Dr Sadaf Khan, associate dean of undergraduate education at the AKU, observed.  She noted that the recent pandemics such as Ebola, SARS, MERS and now COVID-19 represent threats to our way of life and the long-term stability of our health systems which required universities to adopt a different approach to the s...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta of the Aga Khan University (AKU), has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s leading scientific body, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to global child health over three decades. Professor Bhutta is globally recognized for his research breadth and productivity.  Widely published, he is the highest-ranking public health researcher in the Muslim world and was recently ranked by Stanford University among the top 0.01 per cent of the most highly cited scientists globally.  He’s quick to emphasize that these contributions were the result of collaboration and teamwork with faculty and researchers in Pakistan, Canada, and across the world.  He has been a faculty member at AKU since 1986 and his scientific research has focussed on raising living standards in some of the world’s most vulnerable populations including women, newborns and children in low...

By Mukhtar Alam (Pakistan News & Features Services) The medicine experts and intensive care lead physicians from a private medical university will provide free of cost training and telephonic consultations to doctors and paramedical staff handling COVID-19 cases in the government hospitals from April 20. To this effect, senior representatives of the Sindh Health department and the Aga Khan University signed two memorandums of understanding in the presence of Sindh Health Minister, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, at the Sindh Secretariat on April 17.  The two parties agreed to collaborate for improvement of COVID-19 critical care delivery in the public sector hospitals. “Besides capacity building, government healthcare professionals will avail the University’s tele-consultation services on critical cares issues like ventilator management of coronavirus patients,” a government official stated.  The Secretary Health to the Government of Sindh, Zahid Abbasi, AKU Medical College Dean, D...

By Mukhtar Alam (Pakistan News & Features Services) Though media was the major source of their information on coronavirus disease, half of the people lately surveyed by the Aga Khan University (AKU) research team in rural and urban were found unaware that diabetics, smokers and asthmatics were at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19.  The AKU researchers, in a report released on April 15, disclosed that over 90 per cent of those surveyed knew that the elderly were at a relatively higher risk of complications from the disease, while only half of respondents were aware of other risk factors such as diabetes, smoking and asthma. As many as 738 men and women were accessed in the rural and urban areas of Pakistan for the survey aimed at assessing the people’s knowledge about coronavirus symptoms, its mode of transmission and ways to protect oneself from the disease.  About the sources of information about the coronavirus, the researchers said that as many as 49% of the people ...