LAUSR

Iran’s health indicators have trended upwards since the end of the Qajar era in 1925. Political, institutional, and social changes after this period helped transition the country’s epidemiological burden of disease from infectious to non-communicable disorders. A century ago, Iran lost up to a fifth of its population to the ravages of the Spanish flu. Today, Iranians succumb to diseases with a more insidious course in lieu of the dramatic and deadly epidemics that plagued its population in past centuries. The rise of cardiovascular, pulmonary, and cancer-related deaths together with increasing morbidity associated with more chronic metabolic and behavioral disorders are a byproduct of the country’s urbanization, unprecedented food security, and growing life expectancy over the last one hundred years. The shifting disease burden notwithstanding, Iran’s overall health indicators are rapidly catching up with those of developed countries thanks in part to an expanding workforce and improvements in medical education that began almost two centuries ago. Iranians have pioneered medical techniques and tools that have greatly reduced the complications of heroic interventions, such as minimally invasive surgery. Self-sufficiency in generic pharmaceutical production, vaccination, and