Integration of nursing services provided to patients with heart failure living at home: A longitudinal ethnographic study.

Aims And Objectives: This study aimed to (1) describe the development of integrated services between hospital-based heart failure nursing services and municipally located home care nurses' services and (2) identify the benefits of this collaboration for the development of home care nursing services.

Background: Governments have called for better integration of healthcare services to respond to demographic ageing. Clinical pathways have been used to enhance integration and assure continuity between primary and secondary care.

Community-based dementia care re-defined: Lessons from Iceland.

Studies of families caring for persons with dementia living at home often reflect feelings of being forgotten and abandoned by the authorities to shoulder the responsibility for care-giving. This has increased interest in how formal services can better support these families. This article analyses how health and social care professionals envision the needs of families of persons with dementia living in the community.

Accidental injuries among older adults: An incidence study.

Background: To date, the majority of studies assessing accidental injuries among the elderly have focused on fall injuries, while studies of other mechanisms of injuries have been lacking. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate all injury-related visits among older adults to an emergency department and risk factors for injuries.

Methods: Data were collected on all registered visits of adults, ≥67 years old, living in the capital of Iceland, to the emergency department of Landspitali, the National University Hospital, in 2011 and 2012.

Maedi-visna virus persistence: Antigenic variation and latency.

Maedi-visna virus (MVV), a lentivirus of sheep, shares with other lentiviruses the ability to establish a lifelong infection. In this study five sheep were infected intravenously with MVV and housed together with a number of uninfected sheep for natural transmission. All virus isolates from ten sheep that had been infected naturally had multiple mutations in the principal neutralization domain in Env and were antigenic variants, while three of four isolates from the carrier sheep had identical sequences to the infecting strain and were not antigenic variants.

Vaccination delays Maedi-Visna lentivirus infection in a naturally-infected sheep flock.

Background: The Maedi-Visna (MV) lentivirus causes two slowly progressive eventually fatal diseases of sheep, Maedi, a progressive interstitial pneumonia, and Visna, a progressive demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Other lentiviruses also cause fatal slow infections in their natural hosts, e.g.

Activation of maternal Epstein-Barr virus infection and risk of acute leukemia in the offspring.

After identifying an association between maternal Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the authors analyzed a nested case-control study within Finnish and Icelandic maternity cohorts with 7 million years of follow-up to confirm EBV's role in ALL. Offspring of 550,000 mothers were followed up to age 15 years during 1975-1997 by national cancer registries to identify leukemia cases. Mothers of cases and three quarters of matched mothers of controls were identified by national population registers.

Effects of sociodemographic factors on adherence to breastfeeding and other important infant dietary recommendations.

Aim: To examine in an affluent and healthy population the association between sociodemographic factors and the adherence to key infant dietary recommendations.

Methods: In a longitudinal prospective study, healthy newborns were selected randomly in maternity wards around Iceland and their diet recorded every month for one year (n = 124). In addition, a 48-hour-weighed-record, including information on added sugar, fruits, vegetables and the use of A and D vitamin drops was completed by 91 (73%) mothers at 9 and 12 months.

Associations between three types of maternal bacterial infection and risk of leukemia in the offspring.

A case-control study was nested within two maternity cohorts with a total of 7 million years of follow-up for assessment of the role of bacterial infections in childhood leukemia. Offspring of 550,000 mothers in Finland and Iceland were combined to form a joint cohort that was followed for cancer up to age 15 years during 1975-1997 through national cancer registries. For each index mother-case pair, three or four matched control mother-control pairs were identified from population registers.

Maternal herpesvirus infections and risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the offspring.

A critical role for infection in the etiology of childhood leukemia has repeatedly been suggested. The authors undertook a case-control study nested within national maternity cohorts with altogether 7 million years of follow-up to assess the relative role of three maternal herpesvirus infections in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Offspring of 550,000 mothers in Finland and Iceland formed the joint study cohort that was followed up for cancer in the offspring before age 15 years during 1975-1997 through national cancer registries.

Experiments with inactivated visna-maedi vaccine.

Sixteen Icelandic sheep were vaccinated against Visna-Maedi infection with formalin inactivated whole virus vaccine to which alun was added as an adjuvant. Western Blots showed that all the vaccinees responded to the major proteins of the virus. They all developed neutralizing antibodies ranging in titers from 1/8-1/256 at maximum for individual sheep.

Comparison of immunoblots with neutralizing and complement fixing antibodies in experimental and natural cases of visna-maedi.

In this study the humoral antibody response in visna-maedi virus disease in sheep during long-term infection was analyzed utilizing immunoblot assays, neutralization tests and complement fixation tests. In immunoblot assays antibodies to several virus specific protein bands were detected, both against the viral envelope glycoproteins and internal proteins of the virus. The immunoblot reaction pattern resembled that found in HIV-1 infection in humans, consistent with reported similar molecular weight of the major proteins of these two viruses.

Cost-effectiveness of different strategies for prevention of congenital rubella infection: a practical example from Iceland.

Cost-benefit analyses show that prevention of congenital rubella infection is cost-effective. Before selection of a strategy, local epidemiologic and social factors need examination. Analyzing these factors may lead to considerable cost reduction, especially if results from preexisting screening programs are available.

Prevention of congenital rubella in Iceland by antibody screening and immunization of seronegative females.

A programme to eradicate congenital rubella from Iceland was started in 1979, based on (1) screening of all females aged 12-45 years for rubella antibodies and (2) vaccination of all seronegative persons with the RA/27/3 rubella vaccine, given free of charge. Thus, individual protection was offered to all who needed it. The collection of serum samples was planned to last for 2 years while, simultaneously, the already established rubella screening and immunization programmes for 12-year-old schoolgirls and pregnant women continued.

Slow viral infections of animals: experimental models for human disease.

Sigurdsson's three criterions for a slow viral infection are quoted and discussed and the background of his work briefly described. A fourth criterion for a slow viral infection, is suggested, infection of the hosts lymphoid tissues, which is a common feature of slow infections that have been observed. The general properties of the maedi-visna virus, the diseases and the immune response it causes are discussed.

Experience of vaccination with inactivated poliomyelitis vaccines in Iceland.

Iceland, as a few other European countries, has used inactivated vaccine against poliomyelitis from the beginning in 1956. No cases of paralytic polio occurred since 1960. For 17 years neither isolations of poliovirus nor suspected cases of the clinical disease have been recorded.