TEHRAN – President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday touched on the growing number of patients who travel from neighboring countries to receive treatment in Iran, saying the Islamic Republic is regarded as the regional hub of health services.
Addressing a conference held here to pay tribute to the Iranian medical society, Raisi said Iran has a perfect position in the region and the world in terms of medical sciences as many Iranian cities are considered as “health hubs”.
“Our scientific and medical ranking is acknowledged by international officials,” he said, adding Iran can rightly claim that it is a hub of health services.
The citizens of the neighboring countries have said that while they used to travel to Europe for treatment in the past, they now prefer to come to Iran for medical services, President Raisi said.
The president also noted that over 90 percent of the medicines used in Iran are produced inside the country, and Iran is now a major exporter of pharmaceutical products.
Raisi went on to say that many foreign heads of state have hailed Iran’s progress in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors and expressed willingness to cooperate with Tehran in these fields.
In June 2019, an Iranian deputy health minister said the country had witnessed a 15-fold increase in the number of health tourists in the past decade.
The number of health tourists visiting Iran rose from 20,000 in 2007 to 300,000 in 2019, as the total revenues earned from health tourism reached $1.2 billion.