AKU Child Health

09/07/2026

Adolescence is a critical stage of life, yet it often falls into a gap between pediatric and adult healthcare services.

Yesterday, a thought provoking panel discussion, "Addressing Unmet Needs of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Among Adolescents," where Dr. Fyezah Jehan highlighted the systemic challenges that prevent young people from receiving timely, appropriate, and adolescent-friendly care.

The discussion explored key issues including gaps in healthcare systems, misconceptions surrounding adolescent reproductive health, unnecessary medical interventions, mental health concerns, missed opportunities for HPV prevention, and the importance of equipping healthcare providers to better address the unique needs of adolescents.

By fostering meaningful dialogue and strengthening awareness, we can work towards a healthcare system that supports adolescents with the knowledge, care, and services they deserve.

09/07/2026

پاکستان میں بہت سے بچوں کی اموات یا مردہ پیدائش (Stillbirth) گھروں میں ہوتی ہیں اور اسی وجہ سے ان اموات کی وجہ جاننا مشکل ہوجاتا ہے۔ گیٹس فاؤنڈیشن کے تعاون سے چلایا جانے والا چائلڈ ہیلتھ اینڈ مورٹیلٹی پری وینشن سرویلنس (CHAMPS) پاکستان،کراچی کے کم آمدنی والے علاقوں جیسے کہ علی اکبر شاہ گوٹھ،بھینس کالونی اور ابراہیم حیدری میں کام کررہا ہے جس کا مقصد پانچ سال سے کم عمر اور نوزائیدہ بچوں میں اموات کی مسلسل بلند شرح پر قابو پانا ہے۔
چیمپس پاکستان کے شریک سربراہ اور آغا خان یونیورسٹی میں اسسٹنٹ پروفیسر ڈاکٹر مومن قاضی نے 29 جون کو اسی حوالے سے منعقدہ سیمینار میں بتایا کہ "چیمپس" کیسے کام کرتا ہے اور بچوں کی اموات کی سب سے بڑی وجہ کیا ہے ۔ اسی حوالے سے دیکھے انڈیپینڈنٹ اردو کی خصوصی رپورٹ

29 جون کو آغا خان یونیورسٹی، کراچی میں منعقدہ ایک سیمینار میں پیش کی گئی تحقیق کے مطابق کراچی کے کم آمدنی والے علاقوں میں خسرہ پانچ سال سے کم عمر بچوں کی اموات کی سب سے ....

09/07/2026

Real cases. Real reasoning. Real doctors in training.

Our Department of Pediatrics and Child Health recently hosted an interactive session on respiratory disease management from a Pediatric Infectious Diseases lens, led by Dr. Ali Faisal Saleem and Dr. Laraib Malik. It looked nothing like a typical lecture.

Residents from every year of training were mixed into teams and handed real clinical scenarios: When do you start antibiotics?
What does this X-ray actually tell you? How do you tell a routine infection from one that needs urgent escalation?

Senior residents guided, junior residents pushed back, and everyone left having sharpened the kind of clinical judgment that only comes from working through a hard case out loud.

09/07/2026

08/07/2026

"Vaccines cause autism."

You've heard it. So has the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Autism Speaks, and a dozen other institutions that spent decades studying millions of children to answer exactly this question.

Their verdict? Same every time. Vaccines don't cause autism. They cause protection, against measles, polio, meningitis and whooping cough.

Dr. Fyezah Jehan, Chair of Paediatrics & Child Health at AKU, breaks it down in 60 seconds.

The science is settled. Time we settled the myth too.

08/07/2026

Getting this van on the road took years.

Here's why it had to exist in the first place. In many underserved areas of Pakistan, when a child dies, families bury them right away and never report it. Many don't have a way to reach a hospital or a mortuary, even if they wanted to, and many also believe their religion doesn't allow a procedure like this. So the CHAMPS team had to solve for both: reaching families directly, and getting religious clarity first, a fatwa confirming MITS is permissible, checked across every religious sect and faith in the areas they serve.

So what is MITS, and how is it different from a postmortem? Minimally Invasive Tissue Sampling finds the cause of death without a full surgical autopsy. Instead of opening up the body, small needle samples are taken from key organs like the liver, lung, and brain, along with body fluids. The body stays largely intact, the procedure is quicker, and families are far more likely to agree to it, but the diagnostic answers are still there.

Before a single sample was ever collected, Dr. Momin Qazi and the CHAMPS Pakistan team also spent days and nights working through every other detail: how big the van needed to be, how to set up a sterile field on wheels, and how to stay ready to reach any family's home, day or night, the moment a death is reported.

This is Pakistan's first MITS van. Nothing like it existed here before.

Now, Senior Nurse Afraz Ahmed sits inside a fully equipped mobile unit that can help determine why a child or stillbirth didn't survive, one case at a time, so the next family gets an answer.

That answer used to be out of reach. Now it drives right up to their door.

08/07/2026

🔬🚨 *MEDIA INVITE* 🚨🔬
Pakistan to launch a national system that spots disease outbreaks in SEWAGE — before they ever reach a hospital.
Launch of the Pakistan Wastewater Environmental Surveillance (WES) Strategy & the live National WES Dashboard

📅 *Monday, 13 July 2026*
🕙 *10:30 – 11:30 AM PKT*
📍 *Burney Auditorium, National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad*
🌐 *Hybrid event — attend in person or online*

Our wastewater carries a hidden record of the diseases spreading through a community. By testing sewage instead of waiting for patients, scientists can catch an outbreak *days or weeks early*. Pakistan already uses this to track polio — now it's scaling up to watch for *many* diseases at once, on a single national system, for the first time.

🖥️ *The National WES Dashboard* turns lab results from across the country into a near–real-time outbreak map — a standing early-warning system for the next epidemic.
✅ Real-time monitoring ✅ Trends & analytics ✅ Geographic insights ✅ Early-warning alerts

A partnership of NIH • Aga Khan University • Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness (Singapore) • Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

⚠️ _NIH is a federal facility — please carry CNIC / press card for entry. Camera crews, kindly confirm in advance for setup access._

06/07/2026

The law protects children from being denied education because of a medical diagnosis. In practice, that protection rarely gets used.

In conversation with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr., Dr. Fatima Mir, Professor and Section Head, Section of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at AKU, shared that in her years treating children with HIV, she has never seen a single family take a school to court, even after children were tested on admission and expelled for testing positive.

HIV is a disease of the blood. It is not transmitted through hugging, sharing food, or playing and swimming together. Denying a child their right to education over a diagnosis is not just unlawful, it is a failure we allow to continue by staying silent.

06/07/2026

Every Tuesday, our Weekly Research Session highlights innovative work that is shaping the future of public health.

This week's presentation focused on wastewater surveillance as a powerful tool for monitoring infectious diseases and strengthening disease surveillance systems in Pakistan. The research explored how environmental wastewater sampling can help detect a broader range of pathogens, particularly those associated with vaccine-preventable diseases, while complementing existing surveillance efforts.

The session also showcased the extensive fieldwork behind the project, from evaluating potential sampling locations across Karachi's seven districts to overcoming real world challenges such as changing infrastructure, encroachments, and site accessibility. Through careful planning and scientific methodology, the team successfully identified representative sampling sites to support reliable pathogen detection.

By combining environmental surveillance with innovative research, this initiative contributes to stronger public health preparedness and evidence based disease monitoring.

06/07/2026

Improving paediatric emergency care starts with better training.

The Department of Paediatrics & Child Health, in collaboration with the Department of Emergency Medicine, successfully conducted the E.Q.U.I.P. (High-Fidelity Paediatric Emergency Training) workshop under the leadership of Workshop Directors Dr. Afia Tariq and Dr. Noorul Ain, with Dr. Ali Faisal Saleem serving as the lead and mentor.

Designed to strengthen the recognition and management of critically ill children, the workshop equipped healthcare professionals with practical skills in managing paediatric shock, respiratory emergencies, and neurological emergencies through high-fidelity simulation, case-based discussions, and evidence-based protocols. By enhancing emergency preparedness and teamwork, the workshop aimed to improve outcomes for children requiring urgent care.

We thank our workshop directors, facilitators, and all participants for making this initiative a success.