Ensuring adequate health financing to prevent and control the COVID-19 in Iran

Abstract

On February 19 th 2020, the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) has announced the first 2 cases of SARS-CoV-2, a novel emerging coronavirus which causes an infection termed as COVID-19, in Qom city. As such, the Iranian government, through the establishment of the "National Headquarters for the management and control of the novel Coronavirus", has started implementing policies and programs for the prevention and control of the virus. These measures include schools and universities closure, reduced working hours, and increased production and delivery of equipment such as masks, gloves and hygienic materials for sterile environments. The government has also made efforts to divulge high-quality information concerning the COVID-19 and to provide laboratories and hospitals with diagnostic kits and adequate resources to treat patients. However, despite such efforts, the number of cases and deaths has progressively increased with rising trends in total confirmed cases and deaths, as well as in new daily cases and deaths associated with the COVID-19. Iran is a developing country and its economic infrastructure has been hit hardly by embargo and sanctions. While developed countries have allocated appropriate funding and are responding adequately to the COVID-19 pandemics, Iran has experienced a serious surge of cases and deaths and should strive to provide additional resources to the health system to make healthcare services more accessible and to increase the fairness of that access. All relevant actors and stakeholders should work together to fight this disease.

Health equity and COVID-19: global perspectives

“…A recent commentary about the COVID-19 response in Iran [3] exemplifies the concerning general response capacity of low and middle income countries (LMIC) [4], and the barriers faced concerning testing, provision of protective personal equipment (PPE) for health staff, and advanced medical services. People living in LMICs, as well as millions of poor people living in high income countries, also experience significant barriers to self-protection due to crowdedness, poor housing conditions and poor sanitation.…”

Interrupted time series analysis of the implementation of social distancing policy, its lifting and the mandate of wearing face masks in Iran to mitigate against COVID-19

“…Nowruz holiday sounded as an alarm for health policy-makers in Iran. With the establishment of a national committee for the management of COVID-19, the Minister of Health, as the key person of the committee, decided to put prevention and control policies on the government's agenda (7).…”

“…The implementation of the policy of social distancing could not be on the agenda for a long time, and for this reason, the Iranian government issued economic licenses in two stages and reopened various jobs (33). COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on the economies of many countries and has created many problems for everyone (7).…”

“…On 19 February, 2020, the rst COVID-19 case in Iran was reported in Qom (6). With the increase in cases, policy-makers in Iran tried to implement prevention and treatment policies in all provinces (7). However, the rapid increase in the number of patients and the lack of nancial resources, equipment and manpower caused the Iranian health system to face many problems at the beginning of the pandemic (6).…”

“…The Iranian health system, despite its many challenges in dealing with COVID-19, has implemented a policy of social distancing to effectively control COVID-19 (6). Given the high prevalence of COVID-19 in Iran, it seemed that the implementation of this policy could help the Iranian health system (7). The high number of hospitalizations and the shortage of manpower had also led to considering policies such as social distancing (6,12).…”