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E-post: preben@epidemi.no
Preben Aavitsland er lege, fagdirektør ved Folkehelseinstituttet og professor ved Pandemisenteret, Universitetet i Bergen.
Articles by Preben Aavitsland
150-year anniversary of leprosy bacillus
- Magnus Vollset,
- Preben Aavitsland
28.02.2023:
A century and a half after the leprosy bacillus was discovered, far too many people are still contracting the disease. The anniversary is an opportunity to shine a new and necessary spotlight on the disease. Late in the evening of 28 February 1873, Gerhard Armauer Hansen (1841–1912) wrote in his...
No easy way out
- Preben Aavitsland
14.05.2021:
While the general population is attempting to find a way back to their normal daily life, we must begin the discussion on how to live with SARS-CoV-2 as an endemic virus. The COVID-19 pandemic and the countermeasures adopted have been very costly in terms of suffering, death, the economy and jobs...
Worried and prepared
- Preben Aavitsland
03.07.2020:
District medical officers are responsible for detecting and stopping local outbreaks of COVID-19, while we try to learn more about the virus and the disease, and get prepared for new waves of infection. The response from the general public, businesses and government authorities to the import and...
The coronavirus epidemic will reach Norway
- Preben Aavitsland
29.01.2020:
Doctors have a key role to play in limiting the adverse effects of the newly discovered virus originating in China. Just before the New Year, the health authorities in Wuhan, China, discovered a cluster of patients with pneumonia and a link to a market where live animals are sold and slaughtered. On...
Under the skin
- Preben Aavitsland
30.10.2019:
An important part of our defence against infection is preventing infectious agents from getting under our skin. A couple of square metres of skin is all that stands between us and a world of infectious and toxic agents. The skin is our first line of defence against infection. This defence has...
Screening for Mycoplasma genitalium infection?
- Preben Aavitsland
26.01.2016:
Screening should give informed and consenting patients a better prognosis, with acceptable harms and at reasonable cost The bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium is transmitted through sexual intercourse and can cause urethritis and cervicitis, conditions which may have mild or no symptoms. We do not know...
Infections after caesarean sections
- Hanne-Merete Eriksen,
- Anja Ramberg Sæther,
- Hege Line Løwer,
- Siri Vangen,
- Reidar Hjetland,
- Hege Lundmark,
- Preben Aavitsland
26.03.2009:
About 9 000 caesarean sections are performed in Norway annually (1); the percentage of children delivered in this way increased from 2 % in 1967 to 16 % in 2006 (2, 3). Complications may occur after any surgical intervention, also after caesarean sections postoperative surgical site infections (SSIs...
Should children adopted from abroad be screened for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus?
- Petter Elstrøm,
- Bjørn Iversen,
- Preben Aavitsland
31.01.2008:
Staphylococcus aureus can cause a wide variety of infections - anything from superficial harmless skin infections to life-threatening invasive ones (1). Resistance to antibiotics is a global public health problem, and the most frequently identified resistant bacterium in Europe and many other places...