Category: Health

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) The data shows that about 15 million people in Pakistan are in need of refractive and optical services. However, inequality, access, affordability and availability of services make it extremely difficult for most people, especially in rural area, to get their refractive errors corrected. A focused contribution from private and public sectors is required to cater this need. In this regard, an initiative called Improving National Systems in Pakistan for Integrated Action on Refractive Error (INSPIRE) has been launched by Sightsavers in collaboration with National Programme for Prevention and Control of Blindness and its provincial chapter, i.e., College of Ophthalmology and Allied and Vision Sciences (COAVS) Mayo Hospital Lahore.

According to the details, districts Sheikhupura and Multan from Punjab province are the target areas of the said project.  

“The five-year INSPIRE project will reach over a million people with eye health screening services at primary health care level while providing   around 200,000 people with refractive and optical services,” disclosed Munazza Gillani, Country Director, Sightsavers, while sharing details of the initiative.

She further said that the Sightsavers, in collaboration with the COAVS, Lahore, has initiated the INSPIRE project to assist the development of a comprehensive approach to strengthening refractive and optical services in Pakistan. The project will also make a significant contribution to the effective scaling up of screening, refractive services and eyeglasses provision and will promote the integration of these approaches into government-led national programs.

Sightsavers in collaboration of COAVS will initiate an accredited opticianry course in Punjab province for the first time in the history of Pakistan to produce a qualified workforce of qualified and certified opticians to address the issue of unavailability of quality spectacles.

As part of the implementation strategy, a stakeholder’s consultation was held in Lahore which was attended by representatives of Punjab health department, Program Implementation Unit of LHWs program, National coordinator of NCEH, DG COAVS, and representatives of Sightsavers.   On the occasion, Munazza Gillani gave in overview of the initiative the implementation strategy.

On this occasion, Prof. Dr. Asad Aslam Khan (National Coordinator of the National Blindness Control Programme) said that “Sightsavers and National Blindness Control Programme have collaborated closely since 2004, and in Punjab, COAVS has led the way to build a strong track record of innovation and commitment to achieving the objectives of global commitments such as Vision2020”. He said that this could have not been possible without public private partnership. He further added that unless we provide eye care services at primary level, we cannot ensure the provision of services to masses.”  He appreciated the role of Sightsavers in eye health sector in Pakistan.

Ms. Sumrana Yasmin (Global Technical Lead at Sightsavers) said that “INSPIRE project will be addressing one of the most pressing challenges of unavailability of quality opticianry services. The project is well aligned with refractive error/school eye health strategies of Sightsavers and other international eye health frameworks and commitments”.

Prof. Dr. Zahid Kamal Siddiqui, Principal and Director General COAVS, congratulated Sightsavers for consulting the most relevant stakeholders of the project to address the on-ground challenges and opportunities regarding URE.

Sightsavers has been working in all four provinces, including Gilgit Baltistan and AJK in collaboration with Ministries of Health and Education. It has so far successfully trained more than 100,000 people in the eye health workforce, including teachers.

LAHORE (NUT DESK)

Vision without barriers is committed to the rehabilitation of the disabled, President Moaz Khan expresses his views on white cane distribution ceremony among visually impaired children at The Rising Sun School We should stand for Skilling visually impaired people, especially children, Moaz Khan, President Vision without barriers.

Speaking at a function to distribute white canes to visually impaired children at The Rising Sun Institute for special children, A world-renowned organization vision without barrier’s president Moaz Khan, said that Striving to skill visually impaired children. We are active in making disabled people to an effective member of society. “Vision without barriers” is committed to restoring visually impaired survivors around the world. White canes and gifts are being distributed to children in this regard. Hamid Khan, Vice President, Vision without barriers, also expressed his views at the event. He said that, Vision without barriers is committed to the rehabilitation of the disabled

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Find My Doctor announced today that it has raised a Pre Series A funding round from both TPL e-Ventures, investment arm of TPL Corp and TPL Insurance at a $5 million valuation. The funding will be used to open dark stores, improve technology and hire new talent. Find My Doctor currently offers its services in 7 of the largest cities of Pakistan namely Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Peshawar, Hyderabad while plans are in place to enter 10 more by the end of 2022.

Apart from core tech, the Healthtech App will be improving upon its insurance-related services, supported by TPL Insurance, which is Pakistan’s leading Insurtech and one of the largest retail insurance providers in Pakistan. Although insurance is critical to healthcare services around the world, in Pakistan it is yet to cover the wider population, leaving room for substantial growth for any entity which can offer reach and affordability. Find My Doctor, aims to offer innovative features to the general public as well as the corporate sector to make insurance easier to enroll and benefit from.

Healthcare sector continues to experience an exponential volume of traffic due to Covid19 but the nature of the pandemic highlighted various inefficiencies of physical infrastructures, one of them being the inability to cater to a large crowd in a safe and quick manner. Telehealth and doorstep services on the other hand, proved to be quick, safe, convenient and, efficient. With 250,000 satisfied customers, 90,000 lab tests, 400,000 doctor visits and, more than 150 partnerships, Find My Doctor is considered a leader amongst Healthcare Apps in Pakistan.

“We are thrilled to achieve this milestone and will be scaling our operations significantly while experimenting with new products and services. Luckily, we now have the team in place as we have hired our leaders from Tesla, Bykea and an insurance startup” said Saad Siddiqui, Founder & CEO Find My Doctor.

“Being Pakistan’s leading Insurtech, TPL Insurance continually utilizes the digital paradigm to disrupt the insurance industry. Our efforts are singularly focused on making insurance easier and accessible for all, as we look forward to building upon the same vision, set forth by Find My Doctor” said Muhammad Aminuddin, CEO TPL Insurance.

The transaction is subject to a successful completion of certain conditions and regulatory processes.

EPI Sindh and IRD Pakistan Launch ‘Choti Khushi Immunization Incentive Support Program’ for Low Immunization Coverage Districts in Sindh, Pakistan

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) The Honourable Health Minister Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho inaugurated the “Choti Khushi” Immunization Incentive Support Program today for low immunization coverage districts in Sindh province, Pakistan. The launch took place at the Khalid Jamil Dispensary in Karachi where the Health Minister was accompanied by representatives from the Sindh Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), the Provincial Health Department, UNICEF, WHO, and other public health organizations. The Program aims to provide mobile-based small conditional cash incentives (up to PKR 1,200) to caregivers of children aged 0-23 months in 7 low-coverage districts of Sindh: Karachi East, Central and West, Hyderabad, Sujawal, Kambar, and Jacobabad. These districts are marked by the lowest pentavalent-3 and measles-1 vaccines coverage. IRD Pakistan has launched the Choti Khushi program in close collaboration with EPI Sindh and Federal EPI, with support from the Government of Sindh’s Health Directorate and the Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) program.

The Choti Khushi program will provide mobile-based conditional cash incentives for caregivers of around 1.2 million children of 0-23 months of age in the 7 low-coverage districts annually. For every immunization visit completed, caregivers with a registered pre-paid mobile number on any mobile network will receive mobile airtime of 200 PKR, which will add up to 1,200 PKR if all six essential immunization visits are completed. Caregivers can avail this facility at all public and private immunization centers across the seven selected districts. The facility will also be available via EPI outreach activities.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, Dr. Azra Pechuho said, “Introducing incentives for immunizations is a powerful, evidence-based strategy to increase demand and uptake for routine childhood immunization services and timelines in low and middle-income settings. It is the best investment we can make for our future generations.”

The Choti Khushi Immunization Incentive Program is based on evidence generated by IRD through a large-scale Randomized Control Trial conducted during 2017-20 in Karachi, Pakistan, with 11,200 children to test the effectiveness of mobile phone-based incentives in low

immunization settings. The trial provided insights on incentivizing health services to overcome financial barriers faced by caregivers and empower them towards health-seeking behaviors. The study created a system to incentivize childhood immunizations to facilitate caregivers’ health choices.

Speaking about the Program Dr. Subhash Chandir, Program Director of the IRD Maternal and Child Health Program, said, “Parents play a vital role in making decisions about immunization of children. Choti Khushi-Immunization Incentive Support program is based on our decade-long research, highlighting that the small amount conditional cash transfers help overcome the barriers to vaccination like transport cost. These small yet critical cash transfers provide a form of social incentive to caregivers and promote behavioral change favoring immunizations. The program will help improve coverage and equity in these 7 low-performing districts of Sindh and bring them at par with the rest of the Province and Country. The Program will render Sindh one step closer to achieving the global Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) of leaving no child behind.”

Since the 2017 scale-up of the Government of Sindh’s Electronic Immunization Registry (SEIR; aka ZM-EIR), 100% of the EPI estimated annual live birth cohort is enrolled on the SEIR, giving the EPI real-time immunization data to monitor program performance and coverage. SEIR has helped EPI-Sindh track and immunize missed children, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The SEIR will facilitate the Choti Khushi Immunization Incentive Program across the seven districts.

The Choti Khushi Immunization Incentive Support program aims to ensure that no child is left behind and is protected against all vaccine-preventable diseases for a healthier and stronger future.

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Lahore (NUT-DESK)

After a brief delay, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) finally issued Wednesday revised coronavirus guidelines and SOPs for the education, restaurant, entertainment, and other sectors as Pakistan continues its battle against a fifth wave of the pandemic and struggles to contain the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

In cities and districts with positivity higher than 10%, the classes for children under 12 years will continue on “staggered” days, while classes will be conducted daily for fully-vaccinated students above 12 years of age.

In the cities and districts which have a positivity ratio of up to 10%, classes will continue as usual, but with stringent COVID-19 protocols intact, as per NCOC’s guidelines.

With effect from February 1, at least one dose for students above 12 years will be mandatory and no exemption other than medical reasons will be entertained, the NCOC guidelines stated.

“Aggressive sentinel testing in educational institutions will be carried out for targeted closures in high disease prevalence education institutes,” the NCOC said.

Federating units in consultations with health authorities will set a number of cases or infection rate as the benchmark for closure of education institutes, the forum stated.

The decisions were taken during an NCOC session held today in Islamabad with Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar in the chair, a statement from the forum said.

The forum took a “detailed review” of the current trend of the pandemic in the country and after a “deliberate and consultative process”, it has agreed upon the following non-pharmaceutical interventions:

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Pakistan reported more than 3,000 coronavirus cases for the first time since September 15, 2021, the National Command and Operations Centre’s (NCOC) data showed Thursday morning.

The NCOC data showed that the country registered 3,019 more cases in the last 24 hours, taking the overall infections’ tally to 1.31 million. The positivity ratio has reached 6.12% — the highest in more than four months, as the infection rate was last above it on September 8, 2021.

As many as five deaths were also recorded, which took the death toll to 28,992, according to official figures.

Although the Centre had ruled out a lockdown and closing of schools, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training on Wednesday announced that a meeting of the provincial education ministers will be held today (Thursday) to debate whether the prevalent COVID-19 situation in the country warrants the closure of schools.

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Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Pakistan has recorded the highest number of coronavirus infections — 2,074 — in the last 24 hours since September 24, 2021, more than three months ago, the National Command and Operations Centre’s (NCOC) data showed Wednesday morning.

Following the detection of new cases, the positivity ratio has reached 4.70% and overall infections have jumped past 1.309 million, while the recovery ratio stands at 96.2% as 1.26 million people have recovered from the virus.

Pakistan also registered 13 deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest since December 15, 2021, pushing the death toll to 28,987, official figures showed.

The country’s partial vaccinations, as of Tuesday, moved up to 163.65 million after 811,901 more people received the jab, according to the NCOC.

Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours, Karachi’s coronavirus positivity ratio has moved past 20.22%, with the Sindh Health Department mulling over a 14-day “special vaccination programme” in several cities of Sindh.

Despite rising cases, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said a day earlier Pakistan would not go another lockdown and dismissed reports of schools’ closure.

The information minister, addressing a post-cabinet press conference, said the federal cabinet was informed that the COVID-19 positivity ratio had doubled in the country.

“But despite this, it is our resolve that we absolutely not impose a lockdown in Pakistan. Our economy cannot bear the burden [of another lockdown],” he said.

The information minister said “an excellent” vaccination campaign was underway and the government had invested $2 billion into the vaccines.

“Pakistan has a success story of dealing with coronavirus. We will not impose a lockdown. We will, however, monitor the situation. We urge everyone to wear masks,” he said.

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Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is rapidly replacing the Delta variant as 11 members of a family in Karachi’s District East have been found infected with it. 

“Experts at the Provincial Public Health Laboratory (PPHL) have detected 11 cases of Omicron variant from the samples of a family from Lahore. These samples had been collected by the Sindh Health Department, which sent them to DUHS, where our experts confirmed the presence of Omicron variant through Next Generation Sequencing (NGS),” Prof Saeed Quraishy, Vice Chancellor, DUHS, .

The Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Karachi, has acquired the capability of conducting the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) with the help of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the varsity’s Provincial Public Health Laboratory (PPHL) is now the designated lab of the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, Prof Quraishy added.

He said they would continue to carry out surveillance for the Omicron variant cases at their lab, adding that they were using the molecular genetics technique for the detection of new variants, which is not available at many other facilities in the country.

Officials of the Sindh Health Department said they had sent the samples of 20 people infected with COVID-19 to the Dow University for confirmation of the Omicron Variant and after analysis, the Dow University confirmed that 11 people of the family, who came in contact with a female member of their family from Lahore, were infected with the Omicron variant.

“We are now tracing other contacts of these people and will take their samples for analysis but community transmission of this variant has started in the country and we have started seeing a slight surge in the cases of COVID-19 during the last two days,” an official of the Sindh Health Department.

Prof Dr Saeed Khan, an expert of the molecular genetics and pathology at DUHS, also confirmed that they had detected 11 cases of the Omicron variant while a 12th person was also infected but due to less viral load in the sample, they could not declare it a case of the variant with certainty.

“Community transmission of Omicron has started in Pakistan and it is now replacing the Delta variant very rapidly. As it is several times more transmissible, it would soon replace the Delta and other variants in our population,” Prof. Saeed Khan said and warned that people who were not vaccinated or those who had not received the booster dose were vulnerable to the Omicron variant infection.

“Cases of COVID-19 are expected to start rising within a few weeks in Karachi and rest of the country. We may see the peak of fifth wave of COVID-19 by the end of January or first week of February 2022,” he warned and urged people to take precautionary measures, wear masks and get vaccinated with booster dose, if required.

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