Postnatal foot length measurement as a proxy to identify low birth weight for frontline health workers in rural Sindh Province, Pakistan: a diagnostic accuracy study.

Objective: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of postnatal foot length (FL) measurements as a proxy to identify low birth weight (LBW) for frontline healthcare workers in rural Sindh Province, Pakistan.

Design: A community-based cross-sectional study.

Setting: This study was conducted in the catchment area of Global Network's Maternal and Newborn Health Registry, Thatta, Sindh Province, Pakistan, from January to June 2023.

Manganese exposure and perinatal health: a systematic review of literature.

Manganese is essential for adequate feto-maternal health; however, an inverted U-shaped relation has been found between maternal manganese status and pregnancy complications. This systematic review summarizes the effect of maternal manganese exposure and perinatal health. We adopted a systematic approach to retrieve the recent literature.

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among medical students, health professionals, and health care workers: an umbrella review.

Vaccination provides great protection against several infections, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the endeavor faces multiple context-specific problems that affect its uptake, leading to vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is a focal barrier to the success of COVID-19 vaccination programs.

Exploring vaccine hesitancy and acceptance in the general population of Pakistan: Insights into COVID-19-related distress, risk perception, and stigma.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused several impacts. Focusing on 360 participants (178 males, 182 females), this study explored the association between COVID-19 related distress, risk perception, stigma, and vaccine hesitancy and acceptance in the general population. Measures used included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and COVID Stress Scale (CSS) to evaluate anxiety, depression, and COVID-19 related distress, the COVID-19 Risk Perception Scale and COVID-19 Stigma Discrimination Scale to assess risk perception and stigma, and the Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Scale and Vaccine Acceptance Instrument to measure vaccine hesitancy and acceptance.

Exploring cultural sensitivity during distance simulations in pediatric emergency medicine.

Background: Cultural sensitivity (CS) training is vital to pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) curricula. This study aimed to explore CS in Yale PEM fellows and emergency medicine (EM) residents at Indus Hospital and Health Network (IHHN) in Pakistan through distance simulation activities.

Methods: This mixed-methods analysis of an educational intervention was conducted at Yale University in collaboration with IHHN.

Managing menstruation during natural disasters: menstruation hygiene management during "super floods" in Sindh province of Pakistan.

Menstruation is part of women's normal life, which requires basic hygienic practices. Managing hygiene can be affected by several factors and situations such as natural disasters. Focusing on 'super flooding' in Pakistan's Sindh Province, we pay attention to how this 'natural disaster' has affected hygienic practices of menstrual cycle of women.

An Approach to Leadership Development and Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Education in the Context of Professional Identity Formation in Pre-Clinical Medical Students.

Objectives: Leadership and patient safety and quality improvement (PSQI) are recognized as essential parts of a physician's role and identity, which are important for residency training. Providing adequate opportunities for undergraduate medical students to learn skills related to these areas, and their importance, is challenging.

Methods: The Western University Professional Identity Course (WUPIC) was introduced to develop leadership and PSQI skills in second-year medical students while also aiming to instill these topics into their identities.

Culture of vaccine acceptability or resistance: The curious case of Chile's COVID-19 vaccine rollout and anthropology's role in increasing vaccination uptake.

Castillo and colleagues have described the curious case of Chile's COVID-19 vaccine rollout that how Chile has revealed a great success to vaccine a greater population. Interestingly, there are several factors responsible for that success and a lesson learnt for many countries who are lagging in this regard. Building on these authors arguments, I have defined the "culture of vaccine acceptability.

Implications of COVID-19 and "super floods" for routine vaccination in Pakistan: The reemergence of vaccine preventable-diseases such as polio and measles.

With multiple waves and variants, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected routine vaccination programs globally. Its impact is also visible in Pakistan as routine health services continue to be disrupted. Consequently, thousands of children have emerged as vulnerable in the face of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs), which have already started causing outbreaks in the country.

Perspectives on physician leadership: The role of character-based leadership in medicine.

Introduction: Physician leadership is multifaceted, but leadership training in medicine often is not. Leadership education and training for physicians are rarely grounded in conceptual leadership frameworks and suffer from a primary focus on cognitive leadership domains. Character-based leadership is a conceptual leadership framework that moves beyond cognitive competencies and articulates dimensions of character that promote effective leadership.

COVID-19 and cancelled vaccination programs: Forecasting outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) in Pakistan.

As Schmid-Küpke and colleagues discuss the reasons behind cancelling the routine vaccination in Germany, the pandemic has affected all six World Health Organization Regions as around 56 countries suspended their mass vaccination campaigns during the first six months of the pandemic. The same happened in Pakistan. Consequently, there are great and valid concerns that there will be outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease (VPDs) in the country.

Dietary Trace Element Intake and Risk of Breast Cancer: A Mini Review.

Trace elements are essentially required for various physiological and metabolic functions, and any disturbance in the trace elements homeostasis may result in the development of chronic diseases including breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer type reported in women equally affecting both the high-income and low-income countries. This review therefore aimed to evaluate the impact of dietary trace element intake in relation to the incidence of breast cancer.

Doctors Dealing With COVID-19 in Pakistan: Experiences, Perceptions, Fear, and Responsibility.

This study aimed to describe the dealings of 20 biomedical doctors with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Focusing on physicians from three different hospitals, we describe their challenges, emotions, and views concerning the pandemic. Many regarded the virus from a biomedical standpoint.

COVID-19 Significantly Affects Maternal Health: A Rapid-Response Investigation from Pakistan.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still unfolding. Its several implications are visible, yet more of them we have to observe and witness in future. Dealing with these impacts, this rapid-response article aims to situate the COVID-19 pandemic within Pakistan's overall sociocultural and politico-economic context; next to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 particularly the psychological ones on pregnant women in Pakistan via five case.

COVID-19 in Pakistan and Papua New Guinea: reflections on mass testing and challenges.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic continues during 2021. Some countries are revisiting their containment measures to be eased or re-imposed after massive testing programs. Yet is testing itself a solution? Testing may be an important containment step, yet in low-income countries (LICs), it may be substantially challenging to carry out.

Corrigendum: COVID-19 Vaccination: Concerns About Its Accessibility, Affordability, and Acceptability.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2021.

Effect of maternal zinc supplementation or zinc status on pregnancy complications and perinatal outcomes: An umbrella review of meta-analyses.

Zinc is an essential trace element involved in different physiological functions. During pregnancy, it plays a crucial role in healthy embryogenesis. This umbrella review, therefore, aimed to summarize the existing literature of meta-analyses evaluating the effect of maternal zinc supplementation or zinc status on maternal and neonatal outcomes.

COVID-19 Vaccination: Concerns About Its Accessibility, Affordability, and Acceptability.

By the mid of June 2021, after an almost 1.5-year-long COVID-19 pandemic that has significantly affected the world in multiple ways, various vaccines against COVID-19 have arrived and started worldwide. Yet, economic, (geo)political, and socio-cultural factors may influence its uptake at individual and country levels.

Local Perceptions of COVID-19 in Pakistan's Sindh Province: "Political Game", Supernatural Test, or Western Conspiracy?

Objective: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has received various distinct perspectives and responses at the local as well as global levels. The current study pays attention to local perspectives, which have appeared in the Sindh Province of Pakistan.

Methods: Given the constraints of the pandemic, and using convenience sampling, we conducted 10 online group discussions, 7 one-on-one interviews, and 30 cellphone discussions from a small town of Sindh Province.

Birthing Between the "Traditional" and the "Modern": Practices and Childbearing Women's Choices During COVID-19 in Pakistan.

Pregnancy and birth are biological phenomena that carry heavy cultural overlays, and pregnant and birthing women need care and attention during both ordinary and extraordinary times. Most Pakistani pregnant women now go to doctors and hospitals for their perinatal care. Yet traditional community midwives, called in the singular and in the plural, still attend 24% of all Pakistani births, primarily in rural areas.

Rituals of Containment: Many Pandemics, Body Politics, and Social Dramas During COVID-19 in Pakistan.

Infecting millions of people, causing around two million deaths, and affecting billions of people worldwide during January 2021, the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is not merely one pandemic but many. These many pandemics, which I identify herein, have revealed the overt and subtle entanglements among religion, science, and politics around COVID-19. Building on my current ethnographic research on COVID-19 using purposive sampling and interview guide in Pakistan, and borrowing from various anthropological concepts such as "social drama," proposed by Victor Turner, and ritual, I have developed a concept that I call .

COVID-19 Amid Rumors and Conspiracy Theories: The Interplay Between Local and Global Worlds.

Stories and narratives are part of our human sociocultural history, which are always preserved in what I call "societal memory." We construct stories to weave meanings that help us make sense of our lifeworlds. Like stories, rumors and conspiracy theories can offer deep meanings when analyzed in specific contexts.

COVID-19 and Vaccination Campaigns as "Western Plots" in Pakistan: Government Policies, (Geo-)politics, Local Perceptions, and Beliefs.

Vaccination encounters multiple context-specific challenges-socio-cultural, economic, and political-that substantially affect its uptake. Likewise, natural disasters and health emergencies considerably impact immunization endeavors, such as the coronaviurs 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that has overwhelmed the entire world. It was already anticipated that the pandemic would severely affect Pakistan's vaccination programs due to interruptions in routine vaccination and the overstretching of healthcare systems.

From Normal to Viral Body: Death Rituals During Ordinary and Extraordinary Covidian Times in Pakistan.

Death is far from being simply a physiologic event; it is a complex phenomenon with sociocultural and politicoeconomic aspects. During extraordinary times such as the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, death becomes a contested site. I argue that the Pakistani government's dealings with the bodies of people who die from COVID-19 have shifted the meaning of a normal dead body to a that poses particular challenges to cultures and people, including the government.