North
Preventive health in Delhi
A dense city where air pollution is a year-round killer and dengue arrives on schedule every post-monsoon.
What matters most in Delhi
Air pollution
Why here: Winter particulate levels reach hazardous ranges, driving heart attacks, strokes, asthma crises and lung disease — the largest environmental health burden here.
What to look for: Worsening breathlessness, chest tightness, or a child's asthma needing more inhaler than usual on bad-air days.
What to do: Check the AQI before outdoor exercise and move it indoors on severe days. A fitted N95 helps outdoors; a cloth mask does not. Anyone with heart or lung disease should have an action plan ready before winter.
Dengue
Why here: Post-monsoon outbreaks are an annual event, driven by water stored in coolers, tanks and construction sites.
What to look for: The day 3–7 crash: belly pain, vomiting, bleeding gums, sudden weakness.
What to do: Empty and scrub coolers weekly — that is the main breeding site here. Paracetamol only.
Tuberculosis
Why here: Dense housing and high migration sustain transmission, and drug-resistant TB is a particular concern.
What to look for: Cough over two weeks, evening fever, night sweats, weight loss.
What to do: Free diagnosis and full treatment under the NTEP; get household contacts screened.
And everywhere in India
These are not specific to Delhi, but they cause more illness nationally than anything above, and every one of them is covered free by a national programme.
Tuberculosis
Why here: Still India's deadliest infectious disease, in every state and every income group.
What to look for: A cough lasting more than two weeks, evening fever, night sweats, losing weight without trying.
What to do: Diagnosis and the full drug course are free under the NTEP at any government facility. Stopping early is what creates drug-resistant TB — finish the course.
Snakebite
Why here: One of India's largest causes of accidental death, and heavily rural. Most deaths are delays, not venom.
What to look for: Any bite from an unidentified snake. Drooping eyelids, difficulty swallowing or breathing, or bleeding that will not stop are emergencies.
What to do: Go straight to a government hospital with antivenom. Do not cut, suck, or apply a tourniquet, and do not go to a traditional healer first — that detour is what kills.
Rabies
Why here: Effectively always fatal once symptoms begin, and effectively always preventable before they do.
What to look for: Any bite, scratch or lick on broken skin from a dog, cat, monkey or bat. There is no safe wait-and-see.
What to do: Wash the wound with soap under running water for 15 minutes, then get the vaccine the same day. Free under the NRCP. A wound that looks trivial still counts.
Dengue
Why here: Present in every state and rising with urbanisation; the danger is the crash after the fever breaks.
What to look for: High fever with severe body ache, then — around day 3–7 — belly pain, vomiting, bleeding gums, or sudden exhaustion. That phase is the dangerous one.
What to do: Fluids and paracetamol only. Avoid ibuprofen and aspirin, which worsen bleeding. Empty standing water weekly — the mosquito breeds in clean water at home, not in drains.
The programmes named on this page
- NCVBDC — National Center for Vector Borne Diseases Control
- NTEP — National TB Elimination Programme
- UIP — Universal Immunisation Programme
- IDSP — Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme
- NRCP — National Rabies Control Programme
- NSCAEM — National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission
Each is a real government programme, and the testing or treatment described is free at a government facility.
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