OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence of household food insecurity at various income levels in urban areas of Karachi. METHODS A cross sectional survey of different localities in the central district of Karachi was carried out. The data was collected through household interviews of housewives conducted by trained nutritionist. Housewives were interviewed about food security status of the househo...

BACKGROUND Previous studies analysing Karachi ambulance data from 1993 to 1995 identified neighbourhoods in Karachi disproportionately affected by homicide. As a step toward developing intervention programmes to curb violence, we conducted a study to identify risk factors for becoming a homicide victim in a high violence area of Karachi. METHODS We interviewed families of 35 cases, individual...

Postgraduates programs in bioethics are available globally in Canada, USA, Australia, UK, Europe and now with the efforts of UNESCO across much of Asia including India, China and Japan (1). In Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the first formal move in introducing bioethics teachings in the medical students’ curriculum was made at Aga Khan University, Karachi in 1984. It was in 1997 that workshops a...

The well-known fact is that parks play a significant role in sustaining the urban environment. Megacities like Karachi are developing rapidly with simultaneous increase city area, putting immense pressure on open green spaces. widespread built-up development replacing previously existing vegetative cover. lack of spaces main concern, and this problem will only worsen due to overpopulation assoc...

BACKGROUND Karachi is the largest metropolis of Pakistan and its economic hub attracting domestic migrants for economic opportunities. It is also the epicenter of HIV epidemic in the country. Since 2004, one pilot study and four behavioral and biological surveillance rounds have been conducted in Karachi. In addition many student research projects have also focused on key risk groups including ...

The burden of typhoid fever remains high in impoverished settings, and increasing antibiotic resistance is making treatment costly. One strategy for reducing the typhoid morbidity and mortality is vaccination with the Vi polysaccharide vaccine. We use a wealth of new economic and epidemiological data to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of Vi vaccination against typhoid in sites in four Asian cit...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to evaluate mammography reports for diagnosed breast cancer cases in major government and private centers in Karachi, Pakistan, with respect to concordance with the Breast Imaging Reports And Data System (BI-RADS(®)) lexicon. METHODS A prospective, descriptive, multicenter study was conducted in the radiology sections of the Aga Khan University Hospita...

BACKGROUND Childhood obesity is an emerging global public health challenge. Evidence for the transition in nutrition in Indo-Asian developing countries is lacking. We conducted these analyses to determine the trends in nutritional status of school-aged children in urban Pakistan. METHODS Data on the nutritional status of children aged 5 to 14 years from two independent population-based repres...

assessment of long term erosion and accretion rate of the coastal area is essential for selectionof different types of coastal structures. for example, it is not advisable to develop housing infrastructure onthe coast, which is historically eroding. similarly it is not preferable to select an accreting site for theconstruction of a port in order to avoid annual maintenance dredging after constr...

BACKGROUND The World health Organization (WHO) declares dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever to be endemic in South Asia. Despite the magnitude of problem, no documented evidence exists in Pakistan which reveals the awareness and practices of the country's adult population regarding dengue fever, its spread, symptoms, treatment and prevention. This study was conducted to assess the level of know...