El Niño and your health: what a warmer year means in India

El Niño is a warming of the surface of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. It happens every few years and changes weather far from the Pacific. For India, an El Niño year has often meant a hotter summer and a monsoon that is weaker or patchier than usual — not every time, but often enough that forecasters watch for it.

Weather is a health story. Here is what tends to change, and what you can do.

More heat, and more heat illness

Long spells of high temperature are hard on the body, most of all for older people, babies and young children, pregnant women, outdoor workers and anyone with heart, kidney or lung disease.

• Drink water through the day, before you feel thirsty. Oral rehydration solution helps if you are sweating a lot.
• Keep out of the sun from noon to 3 pm where you can. Wear loose, light cotton and cover your head.
• Never leave a child or an older person in a parked vehicle.
• Know the danger signs — confusion, fainting, very hot dry skin, or a seizure can mean heat stroke. That is an emergency: move the person to shade, cool them with water and fanning, and get them to a hospital.

Follow the heat-wave warnings from the India Meteorological Department and your state’s heat action plan.

Mosquitoes: dengue and malaria

Warmer temperatures can speed up how fast mosquitoes breed and how fast the virus or parasite develops inside them. A dry year also means more water stored at home — and the mosquito that spreads dengue breeds in clean, still water.

• Empty, cover or scrub water containers, coolers, flower pots and old tyres at least once a week.
• Use nets, screens and repellent, especially around dawn and dusk.
• See a doctor for a high fever, particularly with severe body ache, pain behind the eyes, rash, vomiting or bleeding. Do not take painkillers like ibuprofen for a suspected dengue fever unless a doctor advises it.

Water and food

A weak monsoon can mean less water and poorer water. Diarrhoea and other water-borne illness rise when people have to rely on unsafe sources.

• Boil or filter drinking water if you are unsure of the source.
• Wash hands with soap before eating and after using the toilet.
• Eat food that is freshly cooked; food spoils faster in the heat.

For hospitals

An El Niño year is a good year to plan early: stock oral rehydration salts, IV fluids and dengue test kits before the season, keep a cooled area ready in the emergency department for heat stroke, and watch daily fever and diarrhoea numbers so a rise shows up in days, not weeks.

This article is general health information, not medical advice. If you are unwell, please see a doctor.