International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health
Volume:1 Issue: 1, Summer 2013

One of the most important infectious diseases in the world is Malaria. About half of the world populations are exposed to the risk of the disease. The program for controlling and eradication of Malaria has been being conducted in our country since many years ago. One of the public health problems in the endemic and non-endemic countries is Imported Malaria which can cause new and permanent infected foci. Population movement and travelling from endemic areas can transmit the disease to the clean areas and can also transmit the drug resistant Protozoa particularly Plasmodium Falciparum. Our case study describes a 30 year old person who has travelled to India for one month. He has visited a doctor in India because of fever, chills, malaise, and has received symptomatic treatment without any specific diagnosis .After returning to Iran, the symptoms appeared again after visiting by a doctor he has hospitalized with a diagnosis of Fever of unknown origin (FUO).He was checked for three days and on the fourth day, the blood smear of the patient showed Plasmodium Vivax. Ultimately he received the appropriate treatment and was discharged from the hospital in a good condition.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is one of the most common infections that affects humans’ cardiovascular system. Although the literature includes controversial evidence for any correlation between CMV infection and arterial atherosclerosis, the majority of studies, especially those with larger patient population and stronger data stand for such a relationship. However, the number of prospective studies was very limited. So, we believe that future studies should be directed towards prospective studies investigating either the impact of CMV infection or antiviral treatment on atherosclerosis formation and advancement in different patient populations including patients undergoing CABG and/or patients with moderate atherosclerosis.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a global concern that infects a large number of people around the world; and it is associated with a broad spectrum of morbidities which can affect several human organs. Coronary artery disease is one of the serious morbidities associated with HIV infection which is able to induce a high mortality rate. In this systematic review, we aimed to review articles investigating the associations between HIV infection and subclinical coronary artery atherosclerosis. 37 studies have been reviewed that included an overall number of 7308 participants (6126 of them HIV+). From 16 studies that compared coronary artery atherosclerosis in HIV+ versus HIV negative patients, only 2 cross-sectional studies reported no difference between HIV positive and negative individuals. Our systematic review strongly recommends an association between HIV infection and/or its therapeutic agents and coronary artery plaque formation and progression. Further studies with prospective approaches would more strongly confirm our conclusion.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has been associated with cardiac disease, including anatomical or functional disturbance to the heart. Cardiomyopathy (CMP) is one of these disturbances that have been associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. In this review article, several aspects of potential relationships between HIV infection and cardiomyopathy development have been issued. Most studies indicated increased prevalence, incidence and mortality rates for CMP in the HIV infected patients, especially in more advanced grades of the infection. CD4 cell count has been shown to be associated with both incidence and outcome of HIV-related CMP. In children, also similar findings have been observed with high incidence and mortality rates associated with CMP-HIV have been observed. However, prepartum CMP burden in HIV infected mothers was not different than that in HIV-negative ones. However, evidence about the effects of ART on the development and progression of HIV-related CMP was very controversial. While is some studies, no associations have been found in some others, ART has been associated with either a better or worse disease incidence or condition. We propose more studies with prospective approach and large patient populations to be conducted for better understanding of the effects of different ART agents on the incidence and outcome of HIV-related CMP.

Medical tourism plays an important role in national revenue of many countries; This industry earns about 100 billion dollars for the governments each year. However, Tourism is not developed in Iran and it is in its initial paces. As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Health recognized tourism-therapy in 2003. In addition, by doing this, rather than supporting tourism-therapy, the ministry mainly tried to create new jobs for the graduates of medical sciences. However, tourism-therapy was introduced as an independent industry in 2004 by the merger The Cultural Heritage Organization to The Iran and World Tourism. According to the planning, the Iranian government has devised plans to cover 30% of medical and health needs of the country, by the end of 4th national development program, through exporting medical products and services. Therefore, determining the obstacles in the way of optimum development of tourism-therapy industry is of great help to the country.

Today the market of medical tourism is growing as one of the competitive and profitable industries in the world. The aim of this study was to determine medical tourist attraction in Tehran hospitals.
This is a descriptive study which was carried out in 8 hospitals of Tehran in 2012. 195 people from the managing boards of these hospitals participated in the study. A questionnaire was designed to gather data. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by professors and administrators and reliability was calculated 80% by Cronbach's alpha. The data was analyzed using SPSS.
The total amount of medical tourist attractions in Tehran hospitals is moderate (51%) and also average number of foreign patients admitted to hospitals and average income for hospitals is also moderate.
According to the results it seems media advertising is the most effective in attracting medical tourists. Furthermore, the advertisement of the capabilities of hospitals alongside marketing could help attract more medical tourists.