TEHRAN – Christoph Hamelmann, World Health Organization’s representative to Iran, has praised a scheme called “Each Home a Health Center” launched in Iran to promote public health literacy and improve health culture in the society.

The national self-care program was prepared by the Ministry of Health to educate volunteers from each family, neighborhood, and training center as health ambassadors.
Under the scheme, one person in each family is selected as a household health ambassador (a volunteer passed at least school’s 8th grade) and is trained by a health team that includes a physician, midwife, health care provider, and health worker to take care of their health, family, peers and community.
The dramatic decline in Covid-19 new cases in Iran indicates that the measures taken to combat the virus were desirable, Hamelmann stated, Tasnim reported on Monday.

Of course, the significant decrease in new infections in Iran does not indicate coronavirus eradication, and the fight against this disease is not over, he noted.
He went on to say that observance of health guidelines should still be considered because the virus still exists and it can be widespread again if health principles are not considered.
The reopening of various places in other parts of the world, such as Iran, is underway, and it is noteworthy that despite the closure of various places and centers in other parts of the world, the infection has increased, while this issue has been controlled in Iran, he explained.
In Iran, good measures have been taken to inform and educate the people at home about the epidemic, he added.
Referring to the implementation of the “Each Home a Health Center” scheme, he concluded that “This plan is very effective in increasing the health knowledge of families and promoting people's awareness.”
In an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times published on May 26, Hamelmann said that Iran is benefiting from strengths in fighting against the coronavirus epidemic, including strong primary health care system, production surge in a reasonable time, and multisector response.
“One of the very important early achievements in Iran was the rapid establishment of a decentralized laboratory testing for Covid-19,” he explained.
On the other hand, Iran, to a certain degree, is a good experience to learn from by other countries, he added.
The number of people diagnosed with coronavirus in Iran reached 154,445 on Monday, of whom 7,878 have died and 121,004 recovered so far. Over the past 24 hours, 2,979 new cases of people having the virus have been identified, and 81 died, Deputy Health Minister Kianoush Jahanpour said.
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