Personal protective effect of wearing surgical face masks in public spaces on self-reported respiratory symptoms in adults: pragmatic randomised superiority trial.

Objective: To evaluate the personal protective effects of wearing versus not wearing surgical face masks in public spaces on self-reported respiratory symptoms over a 14 day period.

Design: Pragmatic randomised superiority trial.

Setting: Norway.

The state of integrated disease surveillance globally: synthesis report of a mixed methods study.

Objectives: Disease surveillance is an essential public health function needed to prevent, detect, monitor and respond to health threats. Integrated disease surveillance (IDS) enhances its utility and has been advocated for decades by the World Health Organization. This study sought to examine the state of IDS implementation worldwide.

Does integration with national registers improve the data completeness of local COVID-19 contact tracing tools? A register-based study in Norway, May 2020 - September 2021.

Background: During the COVID-19 response in Norway, many municipalities used the Fiks contact tracing tool (FiksCT) to register positive individuals and follow-up contacts. This tool is based on DHIS2, an open source, web-based platform. In this study we examined if data completeness in FiksCT improved after integration with national registers between May 2020 and September 2021.

countrywide outbreak in hospitals linked to pre-moistened non-sterile washcloths, Norway, October 2021 to April 2022.

In November 2021, a clonal outbreak of of novel sequence type ST3875 was detected in three patients who died of bloodstream infections in one hospital. By 25 April 2022, the outbreak included 339 cases from 38 hospitals across Norway. Initial hospital reports indicate infection as the main contributing cause in seven deaths.

Health communication in and out of public health emergencies: to persuade or to inform?

Much health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic has been designed to persuade people more than to inform them. For example, messages like "masks save lives" are intended to compel people to wear face masks, not to enable them to make an informed decision about whether to wear a face mask or to understand the justification for a mask mandate. Both persuading people and informing them are reasonable goals for health communication.

Improving National Intelligence for Public Health Preparedness: a methodological approach to finding local multi-sector indicators for health security.

The COVID-19 epidemic is the latest evidence of critical gaps in our collective ability to monitor country-level preparedness for health emergencies. The global frameworks that exist to strengthen core public health capacities lack coverage of several preparedness domains and do not provide mechanisms to interface with local intelligence. We designed and piloted a process, in collaboration with three National Public Health Institutes (NPHIs) in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Pakistan, to identify potential preparedness indicators that exist in a myriad of frameworks and tools in varying local institutions.

Counting pandemic deaths: comparing reported numbers of deaths from influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 with estimated excess mortality.

Background: During the wave 1 of the influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus, Norway appeared to be suffering from high mortality rates. However, by the end of the pandemic, it was widely reported that the number of deaths were much lower than previous years.

Objectives: The mortality burden from influenza is often assessed by two different approaches: counting influenza-certified deaths and estimating the mortality burden using models.

Effect of vaccines and antivirals during the major 2009 A(H1N1) pandemic wave in Norway--and the influence of vaccination timing.

To evaluate the impact of mass vaccination with adjuvanted vaccines (eventually 40% population coverage) and antivirals during the 2009 influenza pandemic in Norway, we fitted an age-structured SEIR model using data on vaccinations and sales of antivirals in 2009/10 in Norway to Norwegian ILI surveillance data from 5 October 2009 to 4 January 2010. We estimate a clinical attack rate of approximately 30% (28.7-29.

Evaluation of the national surveillance system for point-prevalence of healthcare-associated infections in hospitals and in long-term care facilities for elderly in Norway, 2002-2008.

Background: Since 2002, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health has invited all hospitals and long-term care facilities for elderly (LTCFs) to participate in two annual point-prevalence surveys covering the most frequent types of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). In a comprehensive evaluation we assessed how well the system operates to meet its objectives.

Methods: Surveillance protocols and the national database were reviewed.

Questions on causality and responsibility arising from an outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in Norway.

In 2002, Norway experienced a large outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in hospitals with 231 confirmed cases. This fuelled intense public and professional debates on what were the causes and who were responsible. In epidemiology, other sciences, in philosophy and in law there is a long tradition of discussing the concept of causality.

Nationwide study of invasive Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in Norway: importance of underlying disease.

Objective: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that may cause invasive disease. We describe the epidemiology of invasive P. aeruginosa infection in Norway and identify associated clinical factors.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa contamination of mouth swabs during production causing a major outbreak.

Background: In 2002 we investigated an outbreak comprising 231 patients in Norway, caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and linked to the use of contaminated mouth swabs called Dent-O-Sept. Here we describe the extent of contamination of the swabs, and identify critical points in the production process that made the contamination possible, in order to prevent future outbreaks.

Methods: Environmental investigation with microbiological examination of production, ingredients and product, molecular typing of bacteria and a system audit of production.

An outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection caused by contaminated mouth swabs.

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic bacterium that can cause severe infection in susceptible patients. During the winter of 2001-2002, we investigated an outbreak of P. aeruginosa infection among patients in several hospitals across Norway.

[Hospital infections in Norway 1999 and 2000].

Background: The objective of this investigation was to measure the prevalence of hospital acquired infections in Norway in 1999 and 2000.

Material And Methods: The results are based on prevalence reports sent to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health from 41 hospitals in 1999 and 45 in 2000, out of a total of 80 somatic hospitals. With the exception of two hospitals, all registered the four most common hospital infections: urinary tract infection, respiratory tract infection, surgical site infection, and septicaemia.