In a health clinic outside Nairobi, Kenya, Janet* waits to see a doctor. Janet is a 32-year-old widow and mother of four from Kibera, a neighborhood of Nairobi. Her 11-year-old daughter, Jane*, isn’t feeling well. Both mother and daughter are HIV-positive. Janet and Jane are lucky to live walking distance to the Langata Health Center, […]
Improving the Health of People and Planet, One Bite at a Time
What we put on our plates is key to solving some of today´s greatest health and environmental challenges. When I grew up in the early ’80s, my mother, a medical doctor, was an activist in a worldwide movement called International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear Wars. In those days, nuclear weapons were the biggest […]
What’s the Role of a Hospital?
In low- and middle-income countries, a hospital is often the first stop for citizens that experience illness, or the last stop when their health needs aren’t met by primary care. And as countries grow economically, the demand for quality health services at all levels will grow. So when a government decides that it needs to […]
Immunization in Pakistan
It is World Immunization Week and the global health community can celebrate the fact that a large share of the world’s children no longer suffer illness and death due to vaccine preventable diseases. However, the families of Pakistan still suffer greatly; children in Pakistan are less likely to have benefitted from the cost-effective intervention of […]
Homeless woman with a broken wrist
The phenomenon of homelessness is one of the worst forms of urban poverty and social vulnerability. No one wants to be homeless by choice. Women constitute one of the groups worst affected by homelessness. While the phenomenon of homelessness violates the most basic of human rights for all populations, women without a home and living […]
A 37 year old with heart disease
The young male heart is under attack. Nadeem, a 37 year old heart aged faster than his real age. He had a very advanced heart disease that is typically founded in elderly patients. He was a heavy smoker, had worked hard on several jobs to support a family of 7, and was the sole bread […]
The boy from Toba Tek Singh
Javed is a 29 year old bread-earner from a small village near Toba Tek Singh. He got seriously injured in a road accident. The whole family got disturbed as all of them were entirely dependent on him. The victim as well as the family had to face untold hardships and miseries. The primary hardship was […]
Only systems thinking can improve family planning program in Pakistan
At present, Pakistan ranks sixth among most populous countries; in spite of a long history of family planning programs since 1953. Yet it is difficult to claim any considerable reduction in the population growth rate. Total fertility rate is still high, contraceptive prevalence rate increasing slowly, and moreover there is a high unmet need, not […]
Poverty and cardiac diseases
Mitral valve replacement is a cardiac surgical procedure to either repair or replace the mitral valve in the heart. In the case of Tariq doctors opted for mitral valve replacement as repair of the mitral valve could not have been performed successfully in his case. Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) including heart disease are on the rise […]
Leg Amputation: a triple threat
As a result of a motorcycle accident at the age of 33, Zeeshan’s leg had to be amputated below the knee. He was treated for a month and a half but the injury was further complicated and the fear of gangrene loomed. The lower part of the leg was totally destroyed. The infection was so […]
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