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.
Everything here is shaped by density. Dengue arrives reliably after the monsoon and breeds indoors, in coolers and stored water, which is why emptying containers weekly matters more than any fogging. TB is the quieter problem of crowded housing and is already listed above for that reason. Free-roaming dogs are everywhere, and the same-day vaccine rule is the whole of the rabies advice.
Tuberculosis
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
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
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
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.
What to look for with each of these, and why they matter across India →
The programmes named on this page
- NTEP — National TB Elimination Programme
- NRCP — National Rabies Control Programme
Each is a real government programme, and the testing or treatment described is free at a government facility.
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