02/02/2026
Iron sits at the centre of haemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body. If women do not get enough iron through diet (meat, spinach) or supplementation, haemoglobin levels fall, leading to anaemia. In pregnancy, when iron requirements rise sharply, anaemia becomes both common and dangerous. Maternal anaemia does not cause bleeding directly, but it makes childbirth far more risky. Women who are anaemic tolerate blood loss poorly, are more likely to require transfusions, and face a much higher risk of complications and death if bleeding during childbirth (postpartum haemorrhage) occurs. In Pakistan, postpartum haemorrhage remains the number one cause of maternal death, and about 1 in 3 of all deaths related to childbirth are caused by PPH. One effective way to reduce this risk is by treating moderate and severe anaemia during pregnancy. Intravenous iron allows haemoglobin levels to be corrected more rapidly than oral iron, particularly in women who present late in pregnancy or do not respond to tablets. Improving haemoglobin before delivery strengthens a woman’s ability to withstand blood loss and reduces the likelihood of severe complications.
This iron treatment success has been rolled out for anaemic pregnant women who visited the six field sites (Ibrahim Hyderi, Rehri Goth, Ali Akbar Shah Goth, Bhains Colony, and their vicinity) operated by the Department of Paediatrics & Child Health at Aga Khan University. On Friday, SHINE Humanity, an NGO working in the same areas of maternal and child health, signed an MoU with AKU Paediatrics & Child Health to share data and strategies to reach more women across Pakistan.
SHINE Humanity’s strength is that it operates its primary healthcare clinics using an Electronic Medical Record system and mobile clinics that reach women as far as Nagarparkar in the Thar. It has also been collecting substantial data from the field, which it intends to share meaningfully with the scientific community. The hope is that the data will be interpreted as evidence supporting interventions such as the IV iron doses. And AKU’s strength is crunching that data so that the evidence reaches the world and is taken seriously.
The partners will share knowledge, data, and methods on nutrition counselling, malnutrition treatment, and maternal anaemia management over two years. AKU’s data and AI researchers will explore using the electronic medical record system to enable collaborative research and predictive modelling. This work will align with the AI Hub for Maternal, Newborn, Child Health, and Nutrition, jointly established by AKU and LUMS, which aims to develop and validate treatment algorithms to improve clinical decision-making in resource-constrained settings.
The agreement was signed on Friday, January 29, 2026 at AKU in the presence of Kalbe Abbas Dharamsey, the chairman of SHINE, Fahim Khan, the CEO of SHINE, Shazina Masud, Fahim Ahmed (Advisor to the board), Hareem Baig, Ahad Javed and AKU’s Vice Chair for Research Dr. M. Imran Nisar, Section Head for Research Dr. Zahra Hoodbhoy, Instructor for research Dr. Abhishek Lal, Senior manager Ms. Benazir Balouch, Salman Osmani of the Data Management Unit, Hira Farooq, a project specialist and Mr Akber Madhwani, Manager.
