Dr Tazeen Jafar - Research on Chronic Kidney Diseases in Pakistan

Lack of indigenous data in a developing country like Pakistan makes it difficult to devise strategies on national level to prevent and treat the occurrence of major diseases. Poor economic indicators are a significant influence on the prevalence of chronic kidney diseases. Less than 10 per cent of kidney failure patients receive renal replacement therapy, while most of the patients, who receive dialysis, die or stop treatment within the first three months because of cost constraints.

Supported by the evolving research culture at AKU, Associate Professor and Head Section of Nephrology, Dr Tazeen Jafar (MBBS '90) has conducted major research work on the burden of chronic kidney disease in this part of the world. Funded by major research grants from organisations like the Welcome Trust, UK and the NIH-Fogarty International Centre, Dr Jafar has published the first ever population-based studies from this region defining the nature and burden of these ailments in Pakistan.

Population-based research provides the most robust data with widespread generalisability and requires a very high level of rigor and is difficult to execute.

In her article recently published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Dr Jafar highlights the growing epidemic of chronic kidney diseases in Pakistan, reviews the published literature and offers solutions to this major medical problem purely from a Pakistani health care perspective. This is the first invited article in the NEJM from Pakistan.

Dr Jafar was trained at Tufts University and Harvard School of Public Health. She has written defining articles on the burden, distribution and prevalence of chronic kidney and cardiovascular diseases in Pakistan, which were published in leading peer reviewed journals including the Annals of Internal Medicine, Circulation, American Heart Journal and Kidney International.