RESUMO
Being the second-largest country in the Middle East, Iran has a long history of civilisation during which several dynasties have been overthrown and established and health-related structures have been reorganised. Iran has had the replacement of traditional practices with modern medical treatments, emergence of multiple pioneer scientists and physicians with great contributions to the advancement of science, environmental and ecological changes in addition to large-scale natural disasters, epidemics of multiple communicable diseases, and the shift towards non-communicable diseases in recent decades. Given the lessons learnt from political instabilities in the past centuries and the approaches undertaken to overcome health challenges at the time, Iran has emerged as it is today. Iran is now a country with a population exceeding 80 million, mainly inhabiting urban regions, and has an increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, malignancies, mental disorders, substance abuse, and road injuries.
Assuntos
História da Medicina , Doenças não Transmissíveis/epidemiologia , Transição Epidemiológica , História Antiga , Humanos , Irã (Geográfico)/epidemiologia , Pérsia , Anos de Vida Ajustados por Qualidade de VidaAssuntos
História da Medicina , Médicos/história , Redação/normas , História Antiga , Humanos , Irã (Geográfico)RESUMO
In recent years, in European academic circles, there has been a trend to dismiss Gondeshapur as a myth perpetrated by the Bokhtishu family in early Islamic era, despite many historiographical attestations. The writings of Islamic historians such as Al-Qifti and Ibn Abi Usaibia have been discounted as exaggerations by non-contemporary historians, and the lack of primary Pahlavi sources blamed for historical hyperbole. In this essay, I have attempted to show through primary Syriac Christian texts, that there was both a medical school and a bimarestan in Gondeshapur in pre-Islamic Sassanid era, and that Galenic medical texts had been translated and taught in that institution.
Assuntos
História da Medicina , Hospitais/história , Islamismo , Faculdades de Medicina/história , História Antiga , Humanos , Irã (Geográfico)RESUMO
The history of early attempts of blood transfusion in Iran traces back to the 1940s; however, around three decades later in 1974, the Iranian National Blood Transfusion Service (Sazeman-e Melli-e Enteqal-e Khun-e Iran) was founded by the outstanding hematologist, Professor Fereydoun Ala. The main goals of this centralized organization were to collect blood from healthy voluntary donors, to screen the donated blood and to provide various safe blood products based on scientific and ethical standards. In due course, a new era of blood transfusion service in Iran had begun to such a degree that after more than four decades of its activity, it is now considered the best-developed blood service in the eastern Mediterranean region. Here, a brief historical account of the early blood transfusion efforts and the establishment of the modern Iranian National Blood Transfusion Service in Iran is discussed in addition to the life and career of its founder and first director, Professor Fereydoun Ala.
Assuntos
Doadores de Sangue/história , Transfusão de Sangue/história , Hematologia/história , Bancos de Sangue , História do Século XX , Humanos , Irã (Geográfico)RESUMO
In part one of this article I reviewed the history of Asclepius and the Caduceus of Hermes as medical symbols and made a tentative suggestion of using the mythical bird Simurgh as an Iranian symbol of medicine. In this, the second part, I shall describe the evolution of the myth of the Simurgh and discuss the medical relevance of this bird in Iranian history.
Assuntos
Emblemas e Insígnias/história , Animais , Aves , História Antiga , Humanos , Irã (Geográfico) , MitologiaRESUMO
This is the first of two articles reviewing the history of medical symbols. In this first article I have briefly reviewed the evolution of the Greek god, Asclepius, (and his Roman counterpart Aesculapius) with the single serpent entwined around a wooden rod as a symbol of western medicine and have alluded to the misplaced adoption of the Caduceus of the Greek god Hermes (and his Roman counterpart Mercury) with its double entwined serpents as an alternative symbol. In the second part of this article (to be published later), I have made a tentative suggestion of why the Simorgh might be adopted as an Eastern or an Asian symbol for medicine.
