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The virus is detected in the United States. Then New Zealand reports sick students who fled the virus from Mexico. During the spring, swine flu spread to more and more countries.
The question everyone wants answers to is when will the wave of virus hit Europe, and Norway?
Do not panic
Almost 11 years later, Eva Marie Llera sits at home in the living room enjoying a cup of coffee. She has an unusually good time. Like many others, she is currently being fired. A new pandemic has affected Norway and the world.
– What do you think about the situation in Norway today?
– It’s a little double. I follow the advice and will not be one that contributes to the spread of infection. But I am excited for how long AS Norway can continue the measures we see today. I’m not an expert and I don’t want to think about anything specific,
but we are incredibly excited about the way we remember this in two or three years, “she says.
– Are you afraid of being infected?
– I’ve had swine flu, so I’ll probably survive this too, he jokes optimistically.
But Llera admits that she is also a little worried.
– I am afraid of losing someone who is close to me, she says.
Llera also wonders what was really learned from the swine flu pandemic. Because of what really happened in the year Norway was hit by the H1N1 virus?
First case in Europe
Also in 2009, now during the crown eruption, travelers in Hong Kong, South Korea, and other countries were screened at airports and at border crossings for flu-like symptoms.
On Monday, April 27, three days after the first news of the swine flu reached the world outside of Mexico, the stock exchanges of many countries shook. The price of oil also gained a strong downward momentum.
On Monday, then-Minister of Health Bjarne Håkon Hanssen prepared his first press conference on swine flu.
Minutes before speaking, the news in the newspapers dropped:
“A case of swine flu has been confirmed in Europe, in a patient in Spain.”
– Norway has plans in place for a possible pandemic, but reassured Health Minister Hansen.
Students from mexico
Days after Hanssen’s first press conference, in early May 2009, two Norwegians fly home from Mexico. They are both happily unaware that they will soon create big headlines in Norway.
On Saturday, May 9, then-Health Director Bjørn-Inge Larsen confirms that two young Norwegian students are infected with swine flu.
– The tests were taken on May 7 and the answer came on Saturday night, Larsen said at a press conference.
On June 11, he declared the WHO H1N1 influenza as a pandemic.
While seriousness is about to sink, several Norwegian municipalities are known to lack flu testing equipment. In July, Norwegians abroad are reportedly denied return. And the swine flu outbreak is reported
It can make schools close.
In August, uncertainty increases. The Institute of Public Health is excited about what comes first in Norway. The epidemic or the vaccine? It is a race in time.
On August 8, 2009, FHI confirms that a 42-year-old woman from Akershus died two days earlier as a result of the swine flu. She becomes the first Norwegian victim of influenza A (H1N1).
squat shot
In a race against the virus, health authorities begin mass vaccination in late fall at several of the country’s hospitals.
Norwegian health authorities are also issuing a vaccine recommendation to the entire population. However, some are very skeptical about the vaccine, called Pandemrix.
The “vaccine action” is being established and is working to convince Norwegians not to get vaccinated against swine flu. In a full-page ad in Dagbladet, allegations are made that the vaccine is dangerous to humans.
Those behind the action have no medical history, but are airlifted when Swiss health authorities decide that pregnant women should not receive the vaccine.
Norwegian health authorities are on the way.
“I am increasingly confident that we have chosen the correct vaccine,” said Dr. Bjørn Iversen of the Institute of Public Health.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also assured: the vaccine against the new H1N1 virus is not dangerous.
In hindsight, the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) revealed that WHO had consulted experts who had paid assignments for parts of the pharmaceutical industry, which developed the flu drug Tamiflu and
Relenza.
In 2017, FHI also concluded that the Pandemrix influenza vaccine increased the risk of narcolepsy. From October 2009 to the end of 2012, 72 patients under the age of 30 were diagnosed with narcolepsy.
56 of these patients were vaccinated with Pandemrix.
– I was stunned
Eva Marie Llera in Bergen also well remembers the discussion about vaccination.
– I remember we were some colleagues who talked about who should be vaccinated and who should not. We were a bit there that “we can tolerate this, it is not so dangerous, we take it as it comes,” says Llera.
However, just a few weeks later, he ended up in a hospital with an infection.
She remembers little of today’s hospitalization. Some glimpses when she was thrown into isolation, and that those around her were dressed in protective clothing, are the few memories she has.
I was completely stunned. Strict infection control measures meant that no one in the family or anyone but health professionals had access, she says.
Llera quickly confirmed swine flu and pneumonia.
– Do you fear for your life?
– Not at all. I don’t know if it was due to the high fever and that I slept a lot, or if it was because those around me were so calm and clinging. After five to six days I was discharged, but I had to quarantine
for a week, she says.
Criticized to the municipalities
In addition to the vaccine debate, in 2009 there was also a debate on emergency preparedness and the preparation of Norwegian municipalities for such a situation. The Director of Health criticized several Norwegian municipalities for making pandemic plans that did not last today.
light.
“They had plans that simply couldn’t be implemented,” health director Bjørn-Inge Larsen told Aftenposten at the time.
In the past three years, health authorities have repeatedly ordered municipalities to exercise what will happen when a pandemic strikes Norway.
– Now that the pandemic has affected, many municipalities are still affected, Larsen said.
The then Chief Information Officer at Bergen Municipality at the time, Robert Raastad, was one of several who responded to the criticism. He correctly stated that it was extremely demanding to work with emergency plans when the central health authorities themselves
so wobbly
“There are constant changes to the recommendations that result in a lot of extra work,” he replied.
– Legitimate to ask questions
Back in Bergen, Eva Marie Llera is holding the October 2014 “National Emergency Plan Against the Flu Pandemic”. The plan is based on the fact that 50 percent of the population may be infected. And half of these can get sick again.
In recent weeks, it has been seen that municipalities, general practitioners and hospitals have reported both the lack and a great need for protective equipment due to the crown pandemic.
“It is legitimate to ask questions about the emergency situation,” says Llera, who will not, however, judge or criticize the authorities today.
She emphasizes that she does not know enough about the content of today’s emergency plan.
– But we must always learn and take lessons, continues.
– Maybe we should have had more in-house team production, but it’s a completely different discussion. The question is also how much can this equipment be stored and how long can it be stored, says Llera.
32 Norwegians died
For the New Year, in the new year 2010, it became clear that swine flu was taking fewer and fewer lives. The WHO noted that the spread of the virus slowed worldwide, after peaking between October and December 2009.
32 Norwegians died entirely from swine flu. Worldwide, 18,500 deaths were recorded.
However, several retrospective studies operate with huge dark figures; Between 150,000 and half a million may have died worldwide as a result of the swine flu.
The explanation is that many of those who died were not screened for swine flu.
On August 10, 2010, the WHO declared that the influenza A (H1N1) epidemic had ended.
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