Non-Governmental Organizations and community health in Iran: opportunities and threats

Looking after a community’s health is a fundamental requirement for all governments. Escalating costs of providing health care places ever greater demands to find the necessary resources whether human or financial. However, the growth of health-related issues consequent upon changes in life style which often requires costly interventions, especially in cardiovascular disease, has produced an imbalance between demand for services and their supply. Medical education and medical research aimed at overcoming these problems is also becoming more and more expensive. Thus there is a need to support organizations, including Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and charitable religious and one non-religious bodies, which can influence health care.