The News Minute | December 23, 2014 | 9.01 pm ISTThe perennial issue of garbage menace continues to haunt the people of Bengaluru even as recently villagers in Mandur expressed joy over shutting of its disease ridden landfill.Since December 1, the city has no designated landfill and the 4,000 tonnes of waste generated everyday is sent to different waste processing plants across and outskirts of the city. However, a number of places have reported dumping of waste in their localities giving way for a number of diseases.Four children have been admitted in the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health over the last one week as they have all contracted Japanese encephalities, reported the Times of India. While two have been admitted in the ICU, the other one has been put on ventilator and one was discharged after treatment.Doctors pointed fingers at the unattended garbage in the city for the increase in prevalence of such diseases. Director of the hospital, Dr. Premlatha said, "Garbage dumps lying unattended everywhere in the city have multiplied mosquito breeding sites. So when a mosquito which bites the carrier pig subsequently goes on to bite the human, the latter gets affected."While private hospitals are yet to give out figures, doctors suspect there are more. "So far, we have only had sporadic cases of Japanese encephalitis in the city. In this scenario, garbage lying unattended everywhere in the city is certainly a risk factor for many vector-borne diseases like yellow fever and dengue. Malnourished children are certainly the most vulnerable. The government must identify high-risk areas and ensure that children are adequately vaccinated against this disease," Dr Salim A Khatib, pediatrician, was quoted by the newspaper.The health authorities are contemplating approaching the BBMP's engineer-in-chief to rid the city of the mounting garbage piles that lies scattered and give out vaccinations in areas where positive cases are reported.