KARACHI: Mayor of Karachi Wasim Akhtar on Friday inspected treatment facilities available in various hospitals run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) for people suffering from chil(ungunya virus and other infectious diseases.

He was accompanied by his deputy Arshad Vohra, senior directors for medical and municipal services and other officers during the visit.

The mayor visited the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Gazdarabad Hospital, Spencer Eye Hospital and Sobhraj Maternity Hospital.

Speaking to reporters during his visit, he said efforts were being made to eliminate chikungunya from the city.

`Chikungunya virus spreads due to bad sanitation conditions,` he said. Criticising the Sindh government, he said his office had been appealing to the provincial authorities for the past four months to clear the increasing piles of garbage inthe city, but they were not listening.

`It seems the Sindh government is not paying any attention to it. The issue regarding the spread of chikungunya has attracted the world`s attention, yet those responsible for waste management are seemingly not worried,` said the mayor.

He said reports of more than 2,000 cases of chikungunya in the city were extremely disturbing.

Recently, the health authorities officially confirmed such figures. However, they said they could send blood samples of only 239 people to the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, of which 183 were confirmed to have been afflicted with the disease.

The city mayor said the World Health Organisation was working in Karachi on infectious diseases and had sent its team recently to mapchikungunyaintheaffectedpartsofKarachi.

Mayor Akhtar said his administration had inherited hospitals in pathetic condition and steps were being taken to improve their environs and health delivery system.

He said KMC staffers were already busy infumigation across the city and special focus was being given to the towns which had recently been found highly infested with chikungunya.

Besides, he added, fumigation inside and around the hospitals was particularly focused on to controlthe spread ofvirus.

The mayor said that despite the fact that his administration had limited resources the KMC was making efforts to bring improvement in hospitals` health delivery system with the sole purpose to provide better facilities to citizens.

He expressed his disappointment over the registration of an FIR against certain KMC officers who had removed encroachments on the land of a local park although prior permission had been sought from the chief minister and local government minister of Sindh before taking that action.

Meanwhile, Aslam Shah Afridi, parliamentary leader in the city council, formally inaugurated the next phase of the fumigation campaign at a ceremony held at the KMC building, saying such campaigns would continue in a bid to control the spread of chikungunya in the city.