It has been abnormally hot in the city of Karachi. The daytime temperatures have, at times, been above 40 degrees and the whole city is sizzling. Coupled with it is the pollution in the air whose index is also flying high and to add to the miseries of Karachites there is an invasion of diseases which previously were never heard of.
Take this new entrant commonly known as Chikungunya virus, a viral infection, which is spreading relentlessly in the city and is transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitos. Symptoms can include fever, joint pain, headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, and rash.
The depressing fact is that there are no known medicines to treat Chikungunya and this being a virus disease one can only wait for it to complete its period which is usually a week and hope to recover on their own. This however is not the end of the story for some patients as the effects of this disease can linger on much longer the most prominent one being almost unbearable pain in the joints.
A friend of mine and his wife are the latest victim of this affliction and that also underlines the fact that couples living under the same roof are bound to be infected one after the other as it is a highly contagious disease and of course the one infected partner cannot move out or even get accommodated by even close relatives as no one will invite a Chikungunya victim to their home let alone providing them accommodation for any period of time.
To cut the story short, my friend’s wife was the worst sufferer of the two as the pain in her bones increased in intensity to the point that she could not even make it from one room to the other without the support of her husband who himself was in almost the same condition but with lesser intensity. The husband has improved but the wife is recovering very slowly and both are living out this ordeal as best as they can.
As if Karachites did not have enough problems that we were informed that another disease this time known as Monkeypox is also in the vicinity. Common symptoms of Monkeypox that can last 2-4 weeks include fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes.
This is an imported disease so the authorities are keeping their eyes at all entrances to the country. You might remember the last time we were hit by an infectious disease of great intensity as was the world at large we got our share of misfortune due to our own negligence in not properly guarding our frontiers.
In the middle of all this the government is faced with the task of getting children across the country drink polio drops which so far seems a daunting task. This is not a simple task by any stretch of imagination as those opposed to this are willing to go to extremes, including killing innocent polio drop administering volunteers.
It is not clear as to what is the basis of such extreme opposition, but according to some reports it is based on some conspiracy theory related to limiting the Muslim populations of the world. This issue or challenge needs to be addressed as it was addressed in various family planning campaigns, especially in Bangladesh and Indonesia where the government and even some international agencies solicited the support of Ulema in carrying out their family planning campaigns successfully.
This problem should also be addressed routinely in TV plays and talk shows to discuss threadbare the reasons for opposing this campaign and providing people with the right information about the importance of such campaigns.
Getting back to Karachi and its invasion by various diseases we all know that the present situation deserves a collective response by the government and people at large.
Most of the diseases are spread by filth and mosquitos. Let us not wait for any civic authority but collectively work to clean our localities and wipe out the centers of diseases so that we and our families are protected.
Our air is also heavily polluted. In Lahore they have same problem and are resorting to artificial rain to combat pollution. We have to be careful if we follow that path as we might have to make a choice between pollution and submerged streets and localities with open gutters claiming their victims.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
The writer is a well-known columnist
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