Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar on Friday inspected the medical treatment facilities available in different KMC hospitals for people suffering from Chikungunya virus and other infectious diseases.
He was accompanied by the Deputy Mayor Arshad Vohra, Senior Director Medical Services Dr Mohammad Ali Abbasi, Senior Director Municipal Services Masood Alam and other officers, said a statement.
The mayor went to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Gazdarabad Hospital, Spencer Eye Hospital and Sobhraj Maternity Hospital.
Talking to media representatives during his visit, the mayor said that all efforts being made to curb the chikungunya disease from the city.
Chikungunya virus spreads due to poor sanitation conditions. He said that appeal has been made since last four months to clear the backlog of garbage in the city but it seems the Sindh government is not paying any attention to it.
The World Health Organization is also working in Karachi to stop the infectious diseases, he added.
He said we got these hospitals in very bad condition and now steps were being taken to bring improvement in these hospitals. He said fumigation was also being done in the city, especially in and around the hospitals to control the spread of the virus.
The mayor said we have limited resources but we need to bring improvement in our hospitals so that citizens could be provided with better facilities.
He said FIR is registered against officers for removing the encroachments on park land although permission was sought from the chief minister and local government minister Sindh before taking this action.
Meanwhile, city council parliamentary leader Aslam Shah Afridi and chairperson media management committee Sabeen Ghori inaugurated the fumigation campaign in the city during a ceremony held in the KMC Building on Friday.
Earlier this week, the World Health Organisation delegation, which arrived in the city to help the authorities curb the incidence of Chikungunya were shocked by the sanitary condition of hospitals.
The delegation members visited various areas, including Ibrahim Hyderi and Malir, and tertiary care hospitals.
There are confirmed 200 confirmed cases of chikungunya in Karachi. There is no laboratory in Sindh to diagnose the disease. The situation is alarming, considering that 21,000 suspected patients of chikungunya are being tested or treated at hospitals in the city.
The delegation members noted that if the sanitation condition in the city remains the same, the diseases will turn into an epidemic. They analysed the situation after completing their survey of the hospitals in those areas of the city that are most affected by diseases such as chikungunya and dengue.
