A child and an old man have been hospitalized for suspected H1N1 infection in Norwegian hospitals, the Norwegian-language newspaper VG reported on Sunday. The child was hospitalized on Christmas Eve and transferred to Ulleval University Hospital in Oslo the next day while the second patient, a man in his 60s, was admitted to the intensive care unit at a hospital in Drammen on Dec. 30, Xinhua reported. The condition of the small child is stable while that of the old patient is serious. None of them were vaccinated against H1N1 flu, said the newspaper, quoting a source from the public health authorities. The Norwegian health authorities is prepared for a new H1N1 outbreak with several million doses of vaccine in stock. The two suspected H1N1 cases put the Norwegian public health authorities on alert, but a major outbreak has been ruled out. "We are well prepared, but do not anticipate that there will be bad in winter, most likely we will not have a large outbreak of swine flu (H1N1)," said Bjoern Iversen, acting Public Health director. From September, 25 H1N1 cases have been confirmed in Norway. This is "the tip of the iceberg," said Iversen. He estimated that between 900,000 and one million Norwegians had H1N1 influenza in the period. On New Year's Eve, a seven-year boy died of H1N1 flu in Sweden. In 2010, nearly 1,930 people lost life to the H1N1 epidemic, said the Norwegian newspaper. As many as 2.2 million Norwegians or 40 percent of the population in the country were vaccinated against H1N1 flu in 2010.
