Poor diets cast long shadows on nations. When pregnant women suffer them, they give birth to malnourished babies whose bodies and brains don't grow properly. This way entire swathes of populations can be at risk of lower IQs. Give malnutrition enough time and it can even eat away at a country's GDP. And one of the highest rates of childhood malnutrition in the world has been documented in Pakistan. One in five children of the world are stunted—in Pakistan, it is two out of every five.
“We've all seen the awful photos of hungry children," says Dr Zahra Hoodhboy, an Associate Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at Aga Khan University. “That's the most visible kind of mal nutrition, but it's not the only kind." There is hidden hunger, where children are deprived of essential micronutrients (iron, folic acid, Thiamin, copper, Vitamin B12 etc.) needed for growth, development, academic performance and to truly reach their full potential.
Dr Hoodhboy's work on trying to find solutions to malnutrition in Pakistan is being recognised globally. The Gates Foundation just named her one of the ten Goalkeeper Champions for 2024 fo r tackling nutrition. Every year Goalkeepers celebrates individuals and organizations focused on making progress on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Dr Hoodhboy is exploring next-generation prenatal vitamins and AI tools to tackle maternal and child health in low-resource settings such as Pakistan.
Micronutrient deficiencies are complex as they are intricately linked to the mother's health. Nutrient poor diet, low dietary diversity, food insecurity in environments which have climate disaste rs predispose women, especially living in low middle income countries to be at risk for these deficiencies.
This is why there has been a global push towards giving them multiple micronutrient supplementation (also known as MMS agenda), to replace the current standard of care for pregnancy. Data from one of AKU's own de novo trials led by Paediatrics Chair Dr Fyezah Jehan and her team has shown that adding just three micronutrients to the 15 existing in MMS may have an important effect on neonatal mortality and infant growth outcomes.
This new combination, called MMS+, is being manufactured locally to be tested in a trial in Karachi, Pakistan. Dr Hoodbhoy is one of the co-investigators for the MMS+ trial with which the AKU te am anticipates improved pregnancy outcomes for mothers facing food insecurity, malnutrition, and anaemia. MMS+ may be one of the solutions to speed up progress to nourish women and children across the globe wherever it is needed the most.
Too often throughout her professional journey, Dr Hoodbhoy observed pregnancy-related research that regarded mothers as mere vehicles for the baby. Her approach challenges this by priori tizing a mother's well-being and ensuring she receives the care she needs throughout pregnancy and beyond.
In addition to MMS+, Dr Hoodbhoy is trying to train AI tools so community workers can adequately triage or assess and prioritise expectant mothers before and after delivery. The Fetal Age Machine Learning Initiative (FAMLI) projec t and Doppler project are building machine learning algorithms with thousands of ultrasounds to predict adverse pregnancy outcomes. Part of the innovation is working with new devices such as a plug-in handheld ultrasound that can be attached to a cell phone. The butterfly device requires just eight hours of training to use and is easy enough for non-technical staff, such as midwives and traditional birth attendants, to operate.
Dr Hoodbhoy was honoured for her work in nutrition at a ceremony in New York on Monday, September 23, 202 4 along with the nine other nutrition champions from Rwanda, India, the US, Ethiopia, Brazil, Nigeria and Bangladesh.
Dr Zahra Hoodbhoy is the second AKU faculty to be highlighted by the Gates Foundation. Paediatrics Chair Dr Fyezah Jehan was named one of the Goalkeepers in 2023.
