29.05.2023: Outbreaks affecting several hospitals require good coordination. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health's role in this work should be strengthened, and we need better systems for monitoring outbreaks, rapid access to genetic engineering tools and techniques for microbiological examinations of equipment and the environment. On 17 November 2021, an outbreak was suspected at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsø (UNN Tromsø) after three patients died of septic shock within a short period of time. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was found in the blood cultures...

28.03.2023: Older people who retire early will now be punished with lower pensions. Many will delay retirement to avoid poverty, even when their health is not up to it. The purpose of reforming the Norwegian national insurance state pension scheme was to reduce government spending while also getting people to stay in work longer (1, p. 8). The Pension Commission established by the Stoltenberg government in 2001 proposed a new state pension scheme in 2004 (2). The Norwegian parliament adopted the main principles in 2005. From 2011, new pension rules were phased in with transitional arrangements starting...

12.12.2022: Economists use the terms black swans and fat-tailed distributions to describe rare, but high-impact events in areas ranging from the financial markets to climate change. We would do well to take such phenomena into account – including in medicine. Until a black swan was discovered in Western Australia in 1697, it was an established truth that all swans were white. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a mathematician and philosopher whose career includes a stint as a hedge fund manager, uses black swans as a term to describe rare events and their relevance to the financial market (1). According to Taleb...

23.11.2022: The new European Guidelines for cardiovascular disease prevention have introduced a stepwise approach with lifestyle measures at the core. The use of drug treatment is recommended based on a risk assessment also taking into consideration the patient's frailty, comorbidities and own preferences. New lipid-lowering, anticoagulant and antidiabetic drugs, as well as guidelines with constantly changing treatment goals, have made the prevention of cardiovascular disease more complex (1). Data from Norway and Europe have also revealed that many patients do not achieve the recommended treatment goals...

05.09.2022: Crab meat is a popular seafood, but it sometimes contains large amounts of environmental toxins. The content is so high in many places in Norway that consumption of brown crab meat should generally be discouraged. Clinical laboratories sometimes receive enquiries about heavy metal poisoning following the consumption of crab meat. Patients' symptoms are often diffuse, and can include pain in the extremities, paraesthesia, fatigue and mood swings. Many patients also have elevated levels of heavy metals, such as mercury, cadmium and lead. It is not clear whether the heavy metals explain the...

18.08.2022: The risk of cardiovascular disease varies considerably in different parts of the world, including within Europe. Norwegian doctors need to be aware of this when they see patients from other countries, such as refugees from Ukraine. Mortality from cardiovascular diseases in Ukraine exceeds that of Norway by a factor of five (Figure 1) (1). This should be taken into account in the preventive treatment of patients with a Ukrainian background. A practical approach could be to adjust the risk estimates from NORRISK2 (2) upwards to a level that corresponds to the European risk estimates recommended...

02.05.2022: Well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets, with the addition of some supplements, can cover all of the body's nutritional needs and promote good health and disease prevention. In recent years, plant-based diets have attracted increasing attention, and the number of people following a vegetarian and vegan diet has grown, especially young people (1). There are various reasons why someone might choose a vegetarian or vegan diet, including considerations related to the climate, environment and animal welfare, as well as personal preferences, religion and ethics. Vegetarianism and veganism are a...