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The Burden Of Pursuing Treatment Abroad: Three Stories Of Medical Travelers From Yemen, Beth Kangas

Peer Reviewed Articles

This case study features stories of patients from Yemen, a low-income country in the Arabian Peninsula, who traveled abroad for medical care. Their stories, drawn from interviews with Yemeni medical travelers in India, highlight the economic and emotional burden of pursuing treatment abroad. These stories of chronic non-communicable diseases and serious injuries depart from the common portrayal of medical tourists as wealthy elective patients from the North traveling for cosmetic surgery. The stories center on the demand and benefit of technological medicine for patients from low-income countries and raise questions about what constitutes ‘health’ when non-communicable conditions often entail ongoing …