Dhaka North mayor apologises for chikungunya remarks

Dhaka North Mayor Annisul Huq has apologised for his remarks on Friday, when he shrugged off the blame for rising chikungunya fever cases in the city and said that his office cannot hunt mosquito 'inside homes of citizens'.

"My remarks, which were featured in media reports, may have hurt many. I want to say that I did not mean it like that. I apologise, if it hurt anyone," he told reporters on Saturday before launching an awareness campaign on mosquito-borne diseases.

After the health ministry held the Dhaka North and South city corporations responsible for the spread of chikungunya disease, Mayor Huq emerged before the media on Friday.

He claimed the viral disease was spreading fast because of mosquito populations inside households, rather than those growing out of the city's drainage system.

“…it is not possible for the City Corporation to hunt mosquitoes inside your homes.

“I can’t tie your mosquito nets, and I can't put insecticides in your water reservoirs. I can't kill the mosquitoes that breed on the surface of the clean water you store inside your homes," he had said.

Huq had said his office was killing more mosquitoes than usual. “I don’t know what more we can do.”

According to the ministry of health, residents living in 23 neighbourhoods of Dhaka face greater risks of contracting the disease.

The symptoms of dengue and chikungunya are almost similar, but joint pains are more severe in cases of chikungunya, doctors say.

Mosquito-borne viral disease, chikungunya was first described during an outbreak in southern Tanzania in 1952.

The virus belongs to the alphavirus genus of the family Togaviridae. The name “chikungunya” derives from a word in the Kimakonde language, meaning “to become contorted”, and describes the stooped appearance of sufferers with joint pain.