پیشگیری

What it means

پیشگیری (pishgiri) means prevention, most often in the context of preventing illness or disease. It is built from two native Persian elements: پیش (pish), meaning before or in advance, and گیری (giri), a verbal noun from گرفتن (gereftan), meaning to take or to block. Together they convey the sense of taking action before something happens in order to stop it. In formal medical and public health writing you will often see it combined with از (az) to specify what is being prevented, as in پیشگیری از سرطان (pishgiri az sartân), prevention of cancer. The word belongs to formal register, but educated speakers use it freely in conversation.

How to use it

• پیشگیری بهتر از درمانه. (pishgiri behtar az darmâne) “Prevention is better than cure.”
• واکسیناسیون مهم‌ترین ابزار پیشگیری از بیماریه. (vâksinâsiyon mohemtarin abzâr-e pishgiri az bimâri-ye) “Vaccination is the most important tool for disease prevention.”
• وزارت بهداشت برنامه‌های پیشگیری رو گسترش داد. (vezârat-e behdâsht barnâme-hâye pishgiri ro gostaresh dâd) “The Ministry of Health expanded prevention programs.”
• پیشگیری از دیابت با رژیم غذایی شروع میشه. (pishgiri az diâbet bâ rezhim-e ghazâyi shoroo’ mishe) “Prevention of diabetes starts with diet.”

Cultural note

The proverb پیشگیری بهتر از درمان است (pishgiri behtar az darmân ast), prevention is better than cure, is genuinely common in Persian and functions the way its English equivalent does. Iran’s public health infrastructure, managed through شبکه بهداشت (shabake-ye behdâsht), the health network, has historically emphasized community-level پیشگیری through rural health houses called خانه‌های بهداشت (khânehâye behdâsht). These grassroots clinics, established in the 1980s, brought preventive care including maternal health, childhood vaccination, and hygiene education to villages and are considered one of Iran’s major public health achievements.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab