Karachi is the largest metropolitan, principal port city and commercial hub of Pakistan. Although there is a national database for registering vital evens such as births and deaths but like in any other developing country the coverage of the system is sub optimal with many of birth and death not recorded. Undercounting of these events leads to inaccurate estimates of vital indicators for informed decision and planning for health at local and national level. In these settings demographic surveillance systems have the potential to supplement data from the vital registration systems and provide avenues for research by virtue of having a well-defined cohort and continuous surveillance. The Department of Paediatrics and Child Health of Aga Khan University Karachi, Pakistan maintains health and demographic surveillance system at four peri-urban and one urban community in Karachi with focus on maternal and child health. This also provide platform for many epidemiological and interventional studies as well as vaccination programs using a well-established identification procedures providing linkage to health and socio-economic data. In 2010 the surveillance system was reorganized to follow INDEPTH methodology and guidelines.
Objective
The purpose of Karachi Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) is to generate longitudinal information on health and demographics of a geographically defined population of low socioeconomic status and provide platform for larger projects in efforts for diseases control.