Enhancing health workforce capacity through life skills-based interventions: evidence from Pakistan on reducing gender-based violence.

Background: Gender-based violence is a pervasive issue in Pakistan, necessitating effective interventions to enhance the responsiveness of healthcare workers' capacity to respond effectively to Gender-based violence. This study aims to strengthen the health system's response to Gender-based violence by implementing a need-based Life Skills-Based Training program for healthcare providers in Pakistan.

Method: A quasi-experimental pre-post study design was employed.

Sexual and reproductive health in Pakistan: a qualitative exploratory study of gender roles, family planning and adolescent health in Chitral, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh.

Introduction: Sexual and reproductive health has been gaining more and more attention due to its all-encompassing definitions and inclusivity of all people, including the marginalised. However, social taboos, lack of political will, broken healthcare system, and sociocultural and economic factors continue to stand as barriers to normalising sexual and reproductive health. This paper explores this topic through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews (IDIs) (exploring both through FGD and direct view from IDIs) in Chitral, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh, Pakistan.

A cross-sectional analysis of the impact of lady health worker visits in the prenatal and postnatal period on the uptake of continuum of care interventions and childhood mortality in Pakistan.

Background: Community health workers are crucial in bridging the gap between health care facilities and the general population. In Pakistan, the lady health worker (LHW) program was launched in 1994 to enhance access to essential health care services. However, the overall quality of care provided by LHWs and its impact on population-level coverage of key maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) interventions and mortality remain insufficiently understood.

Transforming healthcare through just, equitable and quality driven artificial intelligence solutions in South Asia.

AI can transform healthcare in LMICs by improving access, reducing costs, and enhancing efficiency. However, challenges such as safety, bias, and the resource constraints need to be addressed. Further, collaboration across domains is essential to develop capacity, user-friendly tools, and training.

Engaging adolescents for sexual and reproductive health and rights and family planning advocacy in Pakistan: a qualitative study protocol.

Introduction: Adolescents and young people aged 10-24 years comprise 32% of the total population of Pakistan. Adolescents and young people are a heterogeneous group-in different stages of development, living in different circumstances and with differing and changing needs. Neglect of specific adolescents' sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs can pose serious challenges and affect physical and mental health, future employment, economic well-being and adolescents' ability to reach their full potential.

Strengthening primary health care through community health workers in South Asia.

Unlabelled: The growing health challenges in South Asia require further adaptations of community health worker (CHW) programs as a key element of primary health care (PHC). This paper provides a comparative analysis of CHW programs in five countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), examines successes and challenges, and suggests reforms to better ensure highly performing CHW programs. To examine CHW programs in the region, we conducted a narrative review of the peer-reviewed and grey literatures, as well as eliciting opinions from experts.

The spectrum of acute illness and mortality of children and adolescents presenting to emergency services in Sanghar district hospital, Pakistan: a prospective cohort study.

Objective: To describe presenting diagnoses and rates and causes of death by age category and sex among children with acute illness brought to a district headquarter hospital in Pakistan.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Sanghar district headquarter hospital, Sindh, Pakistan between December 2019 and April 2020 and August 2020 and December 2020.

Normal preoperative levels of gamma-glutamyltransferase predict the absence of common bile duct stones in patients scheduled for laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a retrospective cohort study.

Unlabelled: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy, nowadays, is considered the gold standard option for management in patients diagnosed with symptomatic cholelithiasis. Nevertheless, some patients may have coexisting choledocholithiasis, which manifests later in life with grave complications such as cholangitis and pancreatitis. The objective of this study is to evaluate the role of preoperative gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) in predicting choledocholithiasis in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Community and Health Care Provider Perspectives on Barriers to and Enablers of Family Planning Use in Rural Sindh, Pakistan: Qualitative Exploratory Study.

Background: Unmet need for family planning in Pakistan is high, with 17% of all married women wanting to avoid or delay pregnancy. However, they cannot owing to a lack of access to modern contraception and sociocultural hindrances. With the modern contraceptive prevalence rate stagnant at approximately 25% over the last 5 years, it is important to explore barriers and enablers to modern contraception uptake to reduce maternal and child mortality and improve reproductive health outcomes for young girls and women.

Impact of pulse oximetry on hospital referral acceptance in children under 5 with severe pneumonia in rural Pakistan (district Jamshoro): protocol for a cluster randomised trial.

Background: Pneumonia is a leading cause of death among children under 5 specifically in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Hypoxaemia is a life-threatening complication among children under 5 with pneumonia. Hypoxaemia increases risk of mortality by 4.

Effect and feasibility of district level scale up of maternal, newborn and child health interventions in Pakistan: a quasi-experimental study.

Introduction: Pakistan has a high burden of maternal, newborn and child morbidity and mortality. Several factors including weak scale-up of evidence-based interventions within the existing health system; lack of community awareness regarding health conditions; and poverty contribute to poor outcomes. Deaths and morbidity are largely preventable if a combination of community and facility-based interventions are rolled out at scale.

Knowledge, attitude and practice of medical students towards HIV patients in their pre-clinical and post-clinical years in Karachi, Pakistan: a dual-center cross-sectional study.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is currently a global threat with an estimated 38.6 million people affected with HIV worldwide. According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), since 2004 the total number of cases of HIV in Pakistan has risen from 2700 to 130,000.

Compliance and Knowledge of Healthcare Workers Regarding Hand Hygiene and Use of Disinfectants: A Study Based in Karachi.

Background Hand hygiene is the cardinal step in combating various healthcare-associated infections. These infections are a cause of 37,000 deaths in Europe and 100,000 deaths in the United States annually. Thus, prevention of their spread is of utmost importance today.

Relationship between Night Eating Syndrome and Self-esteem: A Cross-sectional Population-based Study in Karachi, Pakistan.

Background The amount of literature shedding light upon eating disorders in developing countries, such as Pakistan, is scarce. This is partially because talking about such matters is considered taboo in the general population. Night Eating Syndrome's (NES) link with depression and obesity has been established; however, presently, no study has been conducted which solely focuses on NES's correlation with self-esteem.

Recognition of Antibiotic Resistance in Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis Caused by Escherichia coli in Liver Cirrhotic Patients in Civil Hospital Karachi.

Introduction Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is the most common life-threatening infection in patients with ascites due to liver cirrhosis. The infection is most commonly caused by the bacterium Escherichia coli, commonly referred to as E. coli.

Rare Case of Peritonitis due to Ileal Perforation Secondary to Richter's Type of Obturator Hernia.

Obturator hernia is an extremely rare condition accounting for almost 0.07%-1% of all abdominal wall hernias, usually occurring in the elderly and emaciated females with a history of previous abdominal surgery. The symptoms of this particular hernia are non-specific; therefore, a high index of clinical suspicion should always be made.

Superior mesenteric artery syndrome in an 18-year old female: Case report.

We report an unusual case of an 18-year old woman, who presented to Civil Hospital Karachi in May 2016 with complaints of vomiting, abdominal pain, dysphagia, altered bowel habits, loss of appetite and chronic weight loss. On examination, abdomen was found to be soft and non-tender with discomfort on breathing. CT angiogram revealed reduction of aortomesenteric angle and aortomesenteric distance which were both consistent with superior mesenteric artery syndrome.

An observational study on the association of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome with gall stone disease requiring cholecystectomy.

Objective: Recognition of Non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic syndrome in patients with gallstones undergoing laparoscopic or open cholecystectomy, along with it we will also study the life style of patients with gall stones.

Background: Patients with gallstones have associated NAFLD, with concurrent metabolic syndrome and these ailments share similar factors for example obesity, hypertriglyceridemia and diabetes mellitus. Factors like body mass index, gender, raised lipid levels, use of contraceptives and alcohol and having diabetes, physical inactiveness, multiparous women, water with excessive iron content, metabolic syndrome, and NAFLD are accountable factors for gallstones formation.

Risk of Breast Cancer among Young Women and Importance of Early Screening.

Background: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women throughout the world. However, in comparison with Western women, it presents relatively early in women of Asian ethnicity. Early menarche, late menopause, use of OCP's, family history of benign or malignant breast disease, exposure to radiation and BMI in the under-weight range are well known risk factors for the development of breast cancer in premenopausal women.

Clinical Presentation and Frequency of Risk Factors in Patients with Breast Carcinoma in Pakistan.

Background: Breast cancer is known to be one of the most prevalent cancers among women in both developing and developed countries .The incidence of breast cancer in Pakistan has increased dramatically within the last few years and is the second country after Israel in Asia to have highest proportional cases of breast cancer. However, there are limited data for breast cancer available in the literature from Pakistan.

Impact of a community-based perinatal and newborn preventive care package on perinatal and neonatal mortality in a remote mountainous district in Northern Pakistan.

Background: There is limited evidence from community-based interventions to guide the development of effective maternal, perinatal and newborn care practices and services in developing countries. We evaluated the impact of a low-cost package of community-based interventions implemented through government sector lady health workers (LHWs) and community health workers (CHWs) of a NGO namely Aga Khan Health Services on perinatal and neonatal outcomes in a sub-population of the remote mountainous district of Gilgit, Northern Pakistan.

Methods: The package was evaluated using quasi experimental design included promotion of antenatal care, adequate nutrition, skilled delivery and healthy newborn care practices.