These patients are from different parts of the globe mainly Europe, Asia, as well as South and North America, he added.

The majority of the medical tourists are from Iraq, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Pakistan, and Turkey, Karimi noted.

“Infertility” main reason to visit Iran

“Infertility treatment is the most important reason for foreign patients’ referrals to Iran’s health centers. Ophthalmology, orthopedics, cosmetology, pediatric surgery, and heart diseases are the next common reasons for foreign patients to visit Iran”, Tasnim quoted Karimi as saying.

According to the Ministry of Health, some 250 hospitals in 27 provinces of the country have International Patient Department (IPD) permits.

Iran’s medical tourism revenues reached $1 billion during the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), as some 1.2 million medical tourists visited the country. But Iran has the capacity to raise it to $10 million.

Iran’s capacity for medical tourism

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

Even Iranians who live in America and Europe perform their medical procedures in Iran and trust in the country’s doctors. At the same time, infrastructure is needed to expand medical tourism, he added.

“The tourist who comes should be provided with suitable accommodation, convenient transportation, and amenities.”

If these infrastructures and conditions are available, Iran will be at a very high level for services and can take good measures in the field of medical tourism, he concluded.

On July 16, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said, “Gradually, as familiarity with Iran’s level of progress in the field of health services increased, the number of medical tourists increased because they trusted the Iranian medical science.”

“We are planning to send health attachés to the countries where the number of visits by medical tourists to Iran is high.”

Einollahi added, “We have negotiated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the appointment of health attachés in the embassies of some countries with whom we cooperate in the fields of medicine, medical equipment, science and technology, and exchange of professors and students.”

“Health attachés are appointed in six countries in the first phase, including South American and African countries. We are also following up on dispatching health attachés in neighboring countries,” IRNA quoted Einollahi as saying.

“The issue of medical tourism is very important. Therefore, countries that have extensive relations with us in the field of health diplomacy will be given the top priority.”

President Ebrahim Raisi has said the Islamic Republic is a suitable destination for medical tourism.

Highlighting the country’s great strides in medical and health sciences, Raisi said patients in many neighboring countries prefer to visit Iran for treatment than travel to Europe.

This is due to the lower cost and high level of expertise in Iran, Raisi said, Press TV reported.

Challenges to overcome

There are some challenges ahead for foreign patients entering the country to receive medical treatment. Karimi has mentioned some of these problems.

A medical tourist should have easy access to the list of the centers with IPD permits, the kind of offered services, and the demanded price range, which is unfortunately not available in the country now.

Also, the hospital should be provided with a system to be able to follow up the medical procedures of foreign patients as they are treated and returned back home.

To address these problems, the Ministry of Health is going to provide a specific package for health tourism and services. The details of the package will be announced soon.

Moreover, the leveling of the medical services provided by the centers with IPD permits is underway.

This way, outgoing patients will receive medical care in centers in border cities, and those needing complicated surgeries will be treated in provincial centers.

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This number can provide solace, on the one hand, but on the other, there is still little information about how these people are doing after the infection has run its course.

With great relief and joy, some convalescents describe how they have survived the physical, but above all psychological stress: the healing of symptoms, the agonizing uncertainty, and the grueling isolation phase. They are happy to be immune to SARS-CoV-2 after having survived the illness. Relief is often mixed with apprehension — for instance, with regard to the many people who have not yet been infected.

Complete recovery?

As the new coronavirus generally affects the lower respiratory tract, most of those infected exhibit a dry cough, shortness of breath or pneumonia.

Now researchers in Hong Kong have said that recovered coronavirus patients can be left with damaged lungs.

A small study of 12 patients discharged from the hospital showed that two or three had reduced lung function. However, it is too early to confirm any long-term effects.

“In some patients, lung function could decline by about 20 to 30% after recovery,” says Dr. Owen Tsang Tak-yin, medical director of the Infectious Diseases Centre at Princess Margaret Hospital in Hong Kong.

Computer tomography has shown fluid- or debris-filled sacs in the lungs, which may get progressively worse as the illness develops.

The findings from Hong Kong confirm very early investigations from Wuhan in early February 2020. In a recent study, scientists from Zhongnam Hospital of Wuhan University analyzed 140 lung scans of COVID-19 patients and found a ground-glass opacity in both lungs of each patient.

Suspected pulmonary fibrosis

Further investigations of the recovered COVID-19 patients must now be conducted to show whether they have developed pulmonary fibrosis — scarring in the lungs. Over time, the scar tissue can destroy the normal lung and make it hard for oxygen to get into the blood. Low oxygen levels (and the stiff scar tissue itself) can cause shortness of breath, particularly during physical exertion.

Lung fibrosis cannot be cured because the scarred changes in the lung tissue do not regress. But the progression of pulmonary fibrosis can be delayed and sometimes even stopped if detected in time.

Are recovered COVID-19 patients immune?

The majority of virologists are convinced that recovered COVID-19 patients are immune to the new SARS-CoV-2 virus after the infection has run its course. After all, the body’s own immune system has produced precisely those antibodies during the infection that render the pathogen harmless.

This all-clear also applies to those who had only a weak course of the disease and showed a few to no symptoms. Nevertheless, their immune systems reacted to the pathogen and produced the corresponding antibodies. A renewed infection with the new coronavirus is therefore highly unlikely.

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