Centres for Disease Control launched at NIH
July 28, 2021
Islamabad: The Centres for Disease Control (CDC) Pakistan was launched at the National Institute of Health (NIH) here Tuesday, marking the start of a brand new initiative to enhance the country s capacity in the field of national public health initiatives.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan, along with Prof. Nausherwan Khan Burki, Chairman of the Health Task Force, and Prof Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Chairman of the Board of Governors of NIH, inaugurated the center at NIH.
CDC Pakistan has been established to enhance the capacity of the public health system in coordination, disease detection, surveillance, response, preparedness, and emergency management of public health events.
Pregnant women who contract Covid-19 are 22 times more likely to die and 50 per cent more likely to experience pregnancy-related complications. Reuters/File
KARACHI: Pregnant women who contract Covid-19 are 22 times more likely to die and 50 per cent more likely to experience pregnancy-related complications than expecting women unaffected by Covid-19, says a global study of over 2,100 pregnant women across 18 countries, including Pakistan, published in JAMA Paediatrics.
AKU faculty Prof Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Dr Shabina Ariff, Dr Ghulam Zainab, Dr Lumaan Shaikh and Dr Khalil Ahmed from the departments of paediatrics and child health, and obstetrics and gynaecology contributed to the study which recruited over 300 pregnant women from Pakistan to the global study.
KARACHI: Pakistan, like many developing countries, faces the challenge of the triple burden of malnutrition where stunted growth and deficiencies of essential nutrients are prevalent alongside a trend of rising overweight and obesity.
The country needs to reinvigorate its focus with a sustained viable strategy for ensuring improved health and nutrition for all to meet global targets in the near future.
These comments were shared by Aga Khan University (AKU) faculty members Prof Zulfiqar A. Bhutta and Dr Jai K. Das, against the backdrop of Lancet’s latest series on Maternal and Child Under-nutrition Progress including three new papers that build upon the findings from the previous 2008 and 2013 series published on Monday.