OVER the past few months, the mosquito-borne illness chikungunya has affected a large number of people in Karachi; while the ailment is rarely fatal, it has a debilitating effect on the human body, causing excruciating joint pain. The issue was raised by a lawmaker during Friday’s Sindh Assembly session, to which the provincial health minister replied that since an outbreak in the metropolis was reported last year, the number of patients had crossed 75,000. Many of these patients hail from the city’s low-income areas. As the World Health Organisation notes, “the proximity of mosquito-breeding sites to human habitation is a significant risk factor for chikungunya”. Local medical experts have observed that chikungunya exacerbates poverty levels and brings about a reduction in the quality of life. Unfortunately, due to the large piles of filth and puddles of foul water that can be found in abundance in Karachi, mosquitoes are given ample breeding grounds, which leads to epidemics of chikungunya as well as more deadly mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria.

In the short term, local and provincial health authorities need to chalk out a strategy to eliminate the breeding grounds of the mosquitoes that cause chikungunya. The Sindh health minister has talked about an awareness campaign to warn people about how to protect themselves from mosquitoes. However, as WHO recommends, fumigation of breeding grounds is essential to contain the spread of the disease. In the long term, what Karachi — and indeed all other areas of Sindh — needs is an environment free of filth. Whether it is mosquito-borne ailments or other health hazards, piles of garbage and pools of sewage pose a threat to human health. Unfortunately, public health and sanitation have never been priorities for our rulers, especially now as provincial and municipal authorities in Sindh wrangle over waste management issues. As this tussle continues, the public suffers, which is why the earlier sanitation and waste management affairs are transferred to local bodies, the better.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2017