Positive Pakistani: The [million]nium goal

Dr Anita Zaidi beats entries like Doctors Without Borders for a $1 million prize that will save countless young lives.

Children display remarkable resilience — a virtue that Dr Anita Zaidi picked up while working with them. Humbled by the little ones who smile even in the face of death, she has been engaged in a battle against infant mortality ever since she returned to Pakistan with her husband, neurologist and writer Saad Shafqat, from the US. And proudly counts her rewards in the smiles she leaves behind on her young patient’s faces.

“I wanted to be a plastic surgeon, but when I entered medical college and began pediatric rotations, I felt it gave me so much happiness to see children on the mend. I [then] decided to become a pediatrician following [in] the footsteps of my mother,” she tells The Express Tribune. Today Zaidi is among the first batch of AKU’s medical college alumni. “My father encouraged me to [take] admission at the AKU at the time when the building was under construction as he worked near the campus and could see the magnificent architecture [which he] associated with [institutional quality],” she recalls.

Preliminary checkup facilities available at Rehri Goth. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN

This was perhaps the most decisive moment in steering her career towards child health. As a medical student at AKU she developed an interest in community health with all students obligated to dedicate 20% of their time to aiding communities and suggesting plausible solutions to health concerns faced by many. It was as a crucial component of their degree requirements, and as a result Zaidi had the opportunity to work in Orangi Town, Grax colony and Essa Nagri. After graduating, she even worked in Gilgit and Chitral for a year in 1989. “That was the year I learnt the most about Pakistan and the problems children living in impoverished environments [face].”



Upon her return from a decade-long stay in the US she joined the Aga Khan University (AKU) in 2002 and eight years later became the head of the pediatric department in 2010. “I opted to work for the AKU because it offered [me] the freedom to pursue a research career dedicated to child health improvement in Pakistan.” Settling into her new role, Zaidi delved right into research which took her across Pakistan in search for communities in dire need of health assistance. She travelled to Karachi’s coastal communities including Rehri Goth and Ibrahim Hyderi, Hyderabad, Mattiari, Naushero Feroze and Thatta in Sindh, and many other parts of Punjab. And from her field research emerged a central discovery: “The biggest child health problem in Pakistan is the poor status of newborn care, leading to very high rates of deaths in newborns — one of the highest in the world.”

A one-month-old child being treated for pneumonia. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN

When around 50% of the births in the country take place at home, what can one really do to save their lives is the major question posed by Zaidi’s research. “When these children become ill, hospitalisation for the families is very difficult even if healthcare is free. [This is] because of [a] lack of facilities [available to] the mother and the family members accompanying her [at] the hospital,” she explains. “Also there is low faith in hospitals to save the baby’s life,” she reasons, identifying community-based healthcare programmes for sick newborns as the only solution to unnecessary hospitalisations.

A child being nebulised.  PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN

It’s this kind of sensible healthcare reform that won Zaidi ‘The Caplow Children’s Prize’, a $1 million grant to be awarded during the next three years to fight early child mortality in her proposed Rehri Goth, Karachi, which has a comparatively higher child mortality rate among all the places she has worked for. “About 11 children out of every 100 die before the age of five, and one woman out of every six living in the area has lost at least one child,” she states. The pediatrician participated in the contest financed by an American entrepreneur, Ted Caplow, to seek out innovative and cost-effective methods to save the lives of children in the area who are born in extreme poverty and suffer from malnutrition. Her proposal stood out among the other 550 submitted proposals from more than 70 organisations and individuals world over.



The grant has taken her a step closer towards her goal of child health reform. “We will work to change people’s [attitude] towards planning for delivery [of babies], [secure a] transport emergency fund, [provide] nutrition support to expectant women, vaccines, and also impart an 18-month training to five women at AKU’s School of Nursing and Midwifery,” says Zaidi about her plans for Rehri Goth, where people spend most of their income on food and safe drinking water. “We need to train young, indigenous women to deal with these situations because they live there and understand [their] needs better than anybody else,” she adds.

A medical lab set up by the AKU maternity project. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN

Among other things, Zaidi has also contributed in the field of immunisation as a member of Pakistan’s National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group. Unfortunately, only 29% of children are fully vaccinated in Sindh which is also a leading cause for child mortality. According to Zaidi, by implementing three basic initiatives on a national scale this rate can be brought down by almost two-thirds.



The proposed initiatives include increased care during child birth, provision of nine essential vaccines free of cost at the Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) clinics across the country and breastfeeding for children for at least three months.

Zaidi believes that vaccines are the single most effective public health tool in the country when it comes to saving the lives of children. While refuting the idea that the vaccines supplied by the government are not genuine, she says, “Only WHO quality certified vaccines are brought into the country and this process is carefully regulated. It is a shame that people can pay Rs4,000 for one vaccine [at a] private hospitals but do not want to utilise [the] government’s free vaccines [from] the same manufacturer.”

One of the two lady doctors treating a patient. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN

Having devoted her life to child health care, Zaidi is very clear about the attributes of good practice. “Doctors who have [a] positive outlook in life and [a] friendly nature become pediatricians, as it is difficult for a non-friendly person to engage with kids,” she advices. And with her personality characteristics fit for the trait, she is bound to shape the future of pediatrics in the country.

Ishrat Ansari works at The Express Tribune Karachi desk. She tweets @Ishrat_ansari 

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, January 19^th, 2014.