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shifteh

iran does not fare well in health indicators.  with regard to infant mortality iran ranks 119/195 with 30.6 deaths per 1000 live births and 35.5/1000 for children under 5 (palestine #85).  according to cia factbook, iran ranks 155/224 with 35.78 infant deaths/1000 live births (just a bit worse than zimbabwe).

although many boast about iran becoming a mecca for cosmetic surgery, i’ve had first hand experience with horrors of iri’s health care system.  i took my grandfather to one of the main hospitals in tehran (in the old abbas abad street) where his nephew is a head physician.  with such connection, i still had to transport my 90+ grandfather with taxi to another clinic to get an mri.  i had to pay cash for everything.  we had to wait for hours in an emergency room.  i had to find medicine on my own (black market) and take it to the hospital.  although smoking is not allowed, patients and even doctors smoke in the patients’ rooms.  it was the most horrifying experience and he had a pretty good connection in his loving nephew.  i gave a bribe to whoever that came into his room per my aunt’s instructions. we did not want to take any chances.  it was sad to see that he and all the other patients that i saw (most with less means than us) had to go through the indignation that they did.

having said all that, i still think there’s something wrong with the life expectancy rate in the article.

Hi Hamsade

It looked bizarre to me, too.  There is so much we don't know and these numbers keep generating more questions to ask.

He says there were 2,155 still births in Tehran.  Is that a normal statistic as compared to other places in the world?  That is 4.5 percent of all the annual deaths in Tehran.  That doesn't sound right in the 21st century.  I wonder what could cause still births--poor health management?  How has that number changed over the years?  Has it gone down or up?  Different answers could point to different conclusions.

something is not right

something is not right about these numbers.  if true, only a handful of countries in the entire world would have a worst record. worldlifeexpectancy.com lists iran's overal life expectancy at 71.1 years (lower than saudi arabia, turkey, and aremenia).

then again, many young people were killed by the government last year.