Iranian doctors bring health care to rural Mississippi

[eridani]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6962844.ece

A US doctor and a development consultant visited Iran in May to study a primary healthcare system that has cut infant mortality by more than two-thirds since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Then, in October, five top Iranian doctors, including a senior official at the health ministry in Tehran, were quietly brought to Mississippi to advise on how the system could be implemented there.

The Mississippi Delta has some of the worst health statistics in the country, including infant mortality rates for non-whites at Third World levels.

"It's time to look for a new model," said Dr Aaron Shirley, one of the state's leading health campaigners.

"Forty years ago, when I was a resident at Jackson hospital, I was in charge of admitting sick babies and was astonished at all the children coming in from the delta with diarrhoea, meningitis, pneumonia.

"After years of health research and expenditure of millions of dollars, nothing much has changed."

As the House of Representatives and Senate weigh the cost of President Barack Obama's health reforms, Shirley points out that good primary care prevents people from ending up in hospital in the first place.

[Nothing Without Hope]

1. Excellent post, for multiple reasons. Thank you. K & R n/t

[drm604]

2. We don't want them thar Ay-rabs

bringing their communist fascist death panels to our country! :sarcasm:

Great story!