TEHRAN – From some 78,000 articles published by Iranian scientists, around 40 percent, equaling 31,000 articles, are related to the health sector, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has said.

Referring to the achievements and progress made after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in various fields, especially in the field of health, he said: “One of the biggest achievements of the country after the Islamic Revolution is related to health.

Without a doubt, before the Revolution, the country was totally dependent in this field in such a way that we had to get help from them even in the smallest health and treatment issues,” IRNA quoted Einollahi as saying.

“But today, in many areas, we have achieved significant progress so that the country is way ahead of many countries.”

“Not only do we provide all kinds of treatment services inside the country with good quality, but we also see the presence of patients from other countries in Iran for treatment.”

Currently, some 40 percent of advanced medical equipment is produced inside the country with the help of knowledge-based companies, he highlighted.

In February, deputy health minister Saeed Karimi said improvements have been made in the field of life expectancy, and the mortality rate of pregnant mothers, children, and infants has declined.

“In Iran, treatment costs are not very high, and although the quality of the services we provide is high, the costs are not very high.”

“One of our plans is to make the services free once the family physician plan is finalized.”

In the field of medical tourism, conditions are very good due to the trust that neighboring countries have in the Iranian health sector, he said.

“Currently, 220 hospitals in the country have the necessary infrastructure to accept medical tourists. However, the tourist who comes should be provided with suitable accommodation, convenient transportation, and amenities.”

According to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, 1,452 scientific journals are being published in the country.

Out of all the mentioned journals, 289 are indexed in the Scopus database and 67 journals are indexed in the Web of Science database, IRNA reported.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, has said that the West exerted pressures on Iran in order to isolate it but their efforts in this regard backfired.

MG