Medical Tourism; An Introduction

“Health is wealth” is a standard Epithet. As the technological development has been on upsurge; correspondingly diseases have also been growing in the world and pose a problem to medical experts. That is why many medical tourists are generally residents of the industrialized nations of the world.

Many people used to visit health centers for getting relief to their health problems.   This is the base of medical tourism. Medical tourism is not a new phenomenon. It is actually thousands of years old. In ancient Greece, pilgrims and patients came from all over the Mediterranean to the sanctuary of the healing god, Asklepios, at Epidaurus. In Roman Britain, patients took the waters at shrines and bath, a practice that continued for 2,000 years. From the 18th century wealthy Europeans traveled to spas from Germany to the Nile. In the 21st century and now relatively low-cost air travel has taken the industry beyond the wealthy and desperate.

Medical tourism is some times synonymously used as the health tourism. Both are different, because Health tourism “components include medical care, fitness and wellness”.   Health tourism is a big umbrella, which includes Spa tourism, Wellness tourism, Ayurveda tourism, Rejuvenation tourism, fitness tourism, and the Medical tourism. All these are same from outside, but different when you look at closely

The main reason for the patients travel to other countries is the convenience in comparison to that of other countries. For many medical tourists the real attraction is price. The cost of surgery in India, Thailand or South Africa can be one-tenth of what it is in the United States or Western Europe, and sometimes even less