Summary of Report from the Norwegian Board of Health 1/2004

In this report, the Norwegian Board of Health presents a summary of seven supervision visits to six airports with international traffic, in order to carry out supervision of the municipalities’ planning for control of communicable diseases. The supervision visits were carried out in the spring of 2003. The background for this supervision was an assignment from the Norwegian Ministry of Health to the Norwegian Board of Health to carry out supervision at Oslo Airport Gardermoen, in connection with the recent SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic. The supervision was later extended to include five other airports with a large volume of international traffic.

 

In the course of the supervision, the Norwegian Board of Health identified inadequate planning in four of the six municipalities. In three of these municipalities the plans for control of communicable diseases at the airports were assessed as not being in accordance with acceptable standards.

 

The report presents a discussion of how the deficiencies and departure from the regulations shall be followed up. The Norwegian Board of Health’s evaluation of the situation and further recommendations are also presented.