King Harald (87) is hospitalized with an infection in a hospital in Malaysia. The royal palace writes that the king receives good follow-up from both Malaysian and Norwegian medical personnel, but will not say anything beyond this. news has been in contact several times on Tuesday with the public hospital Sultanah Malihai in Langkawi, where the Malaysian news website Astro Awani has claimed that the Norwegian king is admitted. Several media outlets have confirmed that the king is staying there. – The hospitals in Malaysia must be quite good. So he will be taken care of by competent people And we have to assume that they have sent the king to the best that is available, says doctor Gunnar Hasle, specialist in infectious medicine with over 30 years’ experience. STATE VISIT IN FEBRUARY: King Harald gives a speech during the gala dinner at the Palace on 13 February in honor of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Photo: Annika Byrde / POOL / NTB – Is it a risk to fly home? – It depends on what kind of symptoms he has and how bad he is. But in that case it will be with an ambulance plane with all facilities. – The best and easiest thing is to treat him where he is, and go home when he gets better. I can hardly imagine a situation where it would be better to be on a plane for 15-20 hours to get to Norway when he is in Malaysia where he can get good health care, Hasle replies. WINTER HOLIDAY: The King is on a private holiday in Malaysia with the Queen. The immune system weakens with age Gunnar Hasle says on a general basis that the most common infection to get when traveling is an acute stomach/intestinal infection. These are food- and water-borne diseases that cause diarrhoea. The palace has not disclosed what symptoms the king has. It is also not known exactly how long the king has been travelling. King Harald has been sick with an infection several times in the past. At the end of January, the king was on sick leave due to a respiratory infection, but was back at work after a few days. In May last year, the king was admitted to Rikshospitalet, where he was also treated for an infection. – What significance does it have that the king is 87 years old? – The immune system will deteriorate over the years, so that an infection can have a much more serious course in people that old than in someone aged 30-40, says Hasle. Professor: – Don’t let age stop you USING THE KING AS AN EXAMPLE: Professor emeritus Ingvard Wilhelmsen at the University of Bergen Professor emeritus Ingvard Wilhelmsen at the University of Bergen has used the king as an example to his patients. He has also written a book about the king’s relationship with his own health. – The fact that he is traveling to Malaysia shows that he is true to his own attitudes, for example that he is “healthy until proven otherwise”, says Wilhelmsen. – I have the impression that the king lives as normally as he can with the limitations that being 87 years entails. Now he has an infection. I don’t know what the king thinks about that, but I think he also got that in Norway, so he knows very well that he is not safe anywhere. – Neither are the rest of us. We all have to live with the uncertainty of life. The moral is: don’t let age stop you from living the life you want and can live. Then we all hope for the best and some of us pray that he recovers quickly, he elaborates.
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Travel doctor believes Malaysian healthcare has a good standard – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
