Health

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in collaboration with the French Development Agency (AFD) last week handed over a breast cancer screening machine to Bugando Medical Centre (BMC) in Tanzania. The machine was procured under a four-year Tanzania Comprehensive Cancer project which is under the two development agencies, according to the project manager, Dr Harrison Chuwa. “The machine will help in cancer diagnosis to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality in target regions where community health workers will be equipped with education on cancer treatment, develop treatment and conduct cancer research in the country,” said Dr Chuwa.

An interdisciplinary team led by the Aga Khan University (AKU) and the Government of Sindh will address the province's complicated public health issues. Dr Azra Pechuho, the Sindh Minister of Health and Population Welfare, and Sulaiman Shahabuddin, President, AKU, met to agree the terms of the partnership. "The working group will expand the existing relationship between the Sindh Government and AKU on education, research, and public health initiatives," Shahabuddin said. At the meeting, Shahabuddin explained that the university's revenue is reinvested in education and research as well as the Aga Khan University Hospital's efforts to boost healthcare for its patients. 

Experts at an international seminar held at the University of Karachi have expressed serious concerns over rising incidents of stroke in Pakistan, and Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). They noted that stroke was the leading cause of chronic disability and a leading cause of mortality worldwide. Dr. Mohammad Wasay, Professor at the Aga Khan's Section of Neurology, Department of Medicine said, "increased stroke incidents are largely associated with aging and urbanisation and propelled by the increasing prevalence of key risk factors, especially in LMICs, including, inactivity, obesity, dietary factors, diabetes, smoking, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension. He said that screening for stroke risk factors provided an excellent opportunity to identify and educate those at high risk.

A senior cardiac and thoracic surgeon and his team at the Aga Khan University (AKU) have invented a heart simulator which may go a long way in teaching resident doctors open-heart surgery and other related operations in much better conditions. Dr Saulat Fatmi said that the simulators currently in the market were artificial hearts or hearts which used pneumatic pumps to simulate beating. None could mimic the true heart mechanism and there was no fluid inside the heart to mimic blood. However, after years of failed and tiring attempts, “we are able to invent a beating heart system with magnetic pumps, fluid reservoir and timing device to produce systole and diastole in a cow’s heart”. Dr Fatmi said it had been patented in the United States and the AKU were now ready to modify this to market it on a commercial basis.

A new device is being used at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, which may render the stethoscope obsolete. The gadget is the point-of-care ultrasound (Pocus) device. “It has been used by radiologists and obstetricians for a long time,” Dr Benjamin Wachira, an emergency care physician explains. But advancements have compressed the technology to such a degree that handheld, pocket-sized versions are now readily available in Kenya. For low resource environments, the World Health Organisation now recommends portable ultrasound devices as a primary diagnostic tool. The device uses sound waves to produce pictures of the inside of the body. It is safe, non-invasive, and does not use radiation. “Every emergency department in any facility should have this,” Dr Wachira says.