Prevention is Better than Cure, so why isn't Governments Policy More Preventive?

The average growth of life expectancy in Iran has stopped over the years. Iran has an 8.1% health expenditure per capita. In Iran, out-of-pocket expenditure, with more than 50%, was the most costly, while in Luxembourg it was the least costly from 2014 to 2018, with less than 12%. The irony is that we lack a prevention health policy and expenditure towards stoppage of chronic diseases is negligible.

The incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases in Iran are considerably high, leaving a large portion of the population with a compromised quality of life, they are 9 million Diabetes population, and the MDD and GAD prevalence is around 13%.

In recent years significant focus has been on Chronic diseases such as cardiac diseases, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, a respiratory disease which need to be addressed in prevention instead of investing in cheap generic pharma producers. Air Pollution and regular use of poor-quality Fuel for Automobiles have caused an increased risk of cancer and chronic diseases. Unfortunately, chronic disease prevention strategies have never been defined at a national level, and based on prescription data the shortage of medicine is covered by poor GMP facilities to fulfill the needs. The need of the hour is specific strategic preventive programs for all chronic diseases. Hence effectively managing escalating healthcare costs requires an understanding of preventive approaches for chronic diseases and identifying their risk factors.

Chronic and systemic disease prevention should involve health promotion activities propagating healthy lifestyles and focusing on limiting the initial onset of diseases. Prevention should concentrate on early detection in a susceptible population, their time management, and dealing with related complications.

Habit cessation programs, as well as lifestyle changes in diet and incorporating exercise schedule, can prevent and delay many chronic diseases. Prevention strategies for the future should start early in a child's life. School preventive oral and systemic health programs should focus on unhealthy lifestyle factors, habits, and behaviors and methods to tackle them. Special emphasis should be on Mental health and regular health screening, and early diagnosis. The healthcare systems in Iran are primarily working on treating diseases and finding newer treatment protocols but lack direction in the prevention of diseases.

A policy to prevent chronic diseases has to be implemented at the government level. Skilled workforce development at various levels-local, state, and national levels should be integrated. Government funding for preventive programs should be enhanced. NGOs and voluntary partnering agencies should be encouraged, and collaborative efforts along with government agencies should also be improved. Every individual has a right to live a healthy life, and to reach this vision, we as a country should collectively involve communities, various professional bodies, organizations, NGOs, Government, and academic and research organizations towards the common goal of ‘Prevention of systemic diseases’.

Developed Countries have always been at the forefront of furthering the cause of research and scientific activities. Recently Australia’s Government has invested significantly in Chinese traditional herbal medicine as its prevention program, and Headspace Strategic Plan 2017-2020 presents the level of eagerness for policymakers to enhance the prevention program we are seeing the Probiotics and herbal medicine increasingly grow to keep the well-being program. In conclusion, Iran's Health policymaker needs to rethink about country's health program and comes out of Rx generic production train.

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