According to the World Health Organization, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes kill 41 million people each year, equivalent to 71% of all deaths globally. In East Africa, while the healthcare challenges are well known, over the next 20 years NCDs like cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes are expected to become the leading causes of death. Released on World Diabetes Day (14 November), this short video (filmed prior to COVID-19) shows how AKDN is supporting the region’s health care and responding to its changing burden of non-communicable diseases.
Scientists have confirmed a person can be reinfected by Covid-19, strengthening a 2018 finding by Kenyan researchers that initial exposure to coronavirus does not offer long-term immunity. The Aga Khan Hospital in Mombasa, which has one of the largest Covid-19 treatment centres in the region, said new cases are rising. Co-chair of the hospital's infection committee Irfan Samji said they are now receiving more cases after a fall in September. He said the new cases have milder symptoms compared to those infected at the peak in June and July.
Whether it is more efficient smoke-free stoves in northern Pakistan, a hydroelectric plant in Uganda, cooling the buildings of the Aga Khan University in Karachi or installing a solar array at an Aga Khan Health Services-managed hospital in Afghanistan, good stewardship of the environment has always been one of the underlying ethics driving the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN)’s work. Now, as AKDN redoubles its efforts to meet the climate change crisis, it is important to reflect on the decisions that have affected – and continue to affect – the environment. Amir Jivraj has been intimately involved with many of these projects along the way.
When the World Health Organisation requested a second video from one of the Joint Commission International (JCI)-accredited organisations to highlight World Patient Safety Day (17 September 2020), JCI approached the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar as Salaam. The result is a video, made at the Aga Khan Hospital, highlighting this year’s theme: “Health Worker Safety – A priority for patient safety”.
The Aga Khan Hospital, Dar es Salaam (AKH) has promised to continue enforcing health and safety measures across its facilities to ensure access to and delivery of high-quality patient care and thus contribute to the country’s health sector development. During the commemoration of the World Patient Safety Day under the theme "Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety",Dr Ahmed Jusabani, Medical Director of AKH said: "The overall objectives of World Patient Safety Day are to enhance global understanding of patient safety, increase public engagement in the safety of health care and promote global actions to enhance patient safety and reduce patient harm."
Tanzania just like any other country in the world has been touched by Covid-19 pandemic. Though all segments of the society are affected, children are more vulnerable to the health, social and economic impacts of this pandemic. Children witness parents who used to provide, now struggling to provide the basic needs. According to Dr Mariam Noorani, pediatrician and lactation consultant and Head of the Department of Pediatrics at the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam, children globally have experienced the negative effects of quarantine. Not being able to meet friends, not being able to go out and play and disruption of their regular routine of schooling can affect their wellbeing and mental health.
Hayat, a digital health project which consists of a novel mobile health application distributed to frontline health workers, was developed by the Aga Khan University in response to transparency, accountability and governance challenges within government health institutions in Pakistan. During the current Covid-19 pandemic outbreak and resulting lockdown, Hayat presented a unique opportunity for the Aga Khan Health Services, Pakistan to efficiently liaise and coordinate with health departments in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to elicit a timely and efficient response, as well as directly reach health workers working in remote regions.
As health care providers, Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS) has a particular responsibility to invest in health care approaches that take care of current patients’ needs while safeguarding the well-being of future generations, too. The hospitals and health centres of AKHS therefore promote actions that continue to deliver quality care but that are simultaneously good for the environment. Good stewardship of the environment is one of the cornerstones of AKDN’s (and AKHS’s) ethical framework.