Indus Vitals

Health experts call for immediate notification to fix surveillance, reporting and prevention gaps By Mukhtar Alam KARACHI: Thirteen years after the Sindh AIDS Control and Prevention Act, 2013 was passed, the province still does not have an active institution to implement it. The Act provided for a Sindh AIDS Commission (SAC) as the apex body for policy, surveillance, and public reporting. The first Commission was notified but met only once. Its three-year tenure expired without further meetings. Since then, the health department has not notified a new composition. The result is visible on the ground. There is no single authority to collect HIV case information, verify outbreaks, or release periodic situation reports. Hospitals maintain internal records. NGOs share field observations. Media and experts quote “sources”. The public gets fragments, not a provincial picture, according to health circles. Health professionals say this gap is now affecting both tracking and treatment...

PMA condemns appointment as violation of court orders, warns of province-wide non-cooperation IV Report KARACHI: Echoing the ongoing concerns of senior in-service and retired officers of the health department, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on Tuesday formally condemned the appointment of a non-technical bureaucrat as Director General Health Services Sindh. In a press release issued by its Secretary General Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, the PMA termed the appointment a direct violation of court orders and directives regarding the governance of technical medical positions. The association stated that it is deeply unfortunate that the Government of Sindh remains indifferent to the serious consequences such a decision holds for public health administration. "It is highly disheartening for the entire medical fraternity to see senior, experienced and highly qualified medical professionals bypassed in favor of a non-technical administrator," the statement said, adding...

New technologies are transforming cancer care, but geography, cost and capacity continue to shape who benefits in Pakistan By Dr Intikhab Ulfat There  was a time when cancer care was largely associated with major surgery, difficult chemotherapy and broad radiation fields affecting both cancerous and healthy tissues. Today, we are moving towards a more precise and personalised approach, recognising that every tumour behaves differently according to its location, biology, genetic characteristics and response to treatment. Modern cancer treatment is therefore increasingly designed around the individual patient, not merely the name of the disease. Among the most important advances has been the progress in radiotherapy. Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays or particles to damage the DNA of cancer cells so that they cannot continue to grow and divide. It may be used alone or along with surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy or targeted drugs. The goal is simple but difficult: dest...

If an artificial station has a stance, let its human keeper come and defend it By Mukhtar Alam In the rush to appear modern, Pakistani prime-time television recently hosted an unusual debate. Two artificial characters, presented as female representatives of their respective AI stations, were interviewed on matters of public interest. The segment was called innovation. In journalistic terms, it was a non-event. Technically it was fake, morally it was misleading, and journalistically it had zero news value. To understand why, we must separate two very different uses of Artificial Intelligence in the news world. The first use is AI as a tool. This is now common globally. Since the first experiments around 2018, newsrooms have used AI to reformat long texts into simple language, translate bulletins, generate illustrations where no picture exists, and make statistical projections. The global trend is that serious newsrooms are expanding this backend use while investing more in hu...

                                                                                                                        — EI illustration Ahead of World Patient Safety Day, PMA stresses safe care for life as NCDs cause over 60% deaths IV Report KARACHI: On the eve of World Patient Safety Day, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has reaffirmed its commitment to healthcare quality and lifelong safety, with a special focus on safe care for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). In a press release issued Wednesday, PMA aligned its message with this year's twin themes: "Engaging patients for patient safety: Elevate the voice of patients!" and "Safe care for noncommunicable diseases: Safe care f...

World's first guidelines released; quitting no longer just lifestyle advice, doctors get practical roadmap IV Report KARACHI: For millions living with type 2 diabetes in Pakistan, doctors will no longer just tell them to "quit smoking" and leave it there. Quitting must now be treated and supported as part of their medical care itself — not as mere general lifestyle advice. This is the core message of the world's first dedicated international guidelines for smoking cessation in people with type 2 diabetes, released this week. The international consensus recommendations, published in the leading journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, have been developed by 35 experts from 13 countries, including Pakistan. The guidelines provide a practical roadmap for doctors and diabetes clinics on how to help patients stop smoking, manage temporary changes in blood sugar, weight and blood pressure after quitting, and cut the risk of heart attack, stroke and other ser...