Fifty prominent leaders from around the world including Heartfile President, Dr Sania Nishtar, recently gathered at Green Templeton College Oxford for a symposium on Gender Inequality in Emerging Markets. The symposium explored the consequences of some sobering facts: that almost every culture is scarred by the perverted belief that women are innately or circumstantially inferior […]
Sexual Rights in the Marital Relationship: A Community based KAP survey in District Hyderabad, Sindh
In Pakistan, marriage is recognized as a legal, social and religious relationship. It is also the only relation in which sexual contact and reproduction is considered permissible and appropriate, especially for women. Most marriages in Pakistan are immediately followed by pregnancy and child birth, while various studies have highlighted the burden of adverse health outcomes […]
Dr. Terence Gibson on Rheumatic Diseases in Pakistan
In developing countries around the world, rheumatic diseases constitute an increasingly significant public and medical health issue. Rheumatic diseases are conditions caused by swelling, inflammation and pain in the joints or muscles of the body. Common examples of rheumatic diseases include rheumatic arthritis, osteoarthritis, Sjogren’s Syndrome and lupus. The causes are varied: some diseases such […]
The ‘impatient optimist’: Bill Gates strengthens his commitment to the eradication of polio
On 29 January, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates delivered the prestigious Richard Dimbleby lecture, and chose polio eradication as the subject of his address. Capitalising on his unique position as a leading voice in global health, Mr Gates outlined a comprehensive six-year plan to eradicate the disease, which he described as “the subject about which I […]
Health and Human Security
By expanding the scope of public health to embrace and propagate the principles of human security, Pakistan and the global community could create sustainable practices through which all people would be healthier and more secure. Human security is an evolving concept for organizing societal endeavors in the tradition of public health. It places the welfare […]
Polio and Pakistan: Great Trepidations
The brutal assassination of nine grass roots level health workers in Pakistan, who were involved in a door-to-door immunization campaign in an attempt to secure children from crippling polio, adds an unprecedentedly grave dimension to the ongoing carnage in Pakistan. Pakistan’s parliament was quick in passing a unanimous resolution and there was widespread condemnation from […]