EllaOne is a new emergency contraception pill that can be taken up to five days after intercourse to prevent pregnancy. However, the new pill is so contentious that most of the Finnish public and even GPs do not know of them as they have been outlawed from professional physicians’ journals. Read the full story

Medical experts and Danish council members have claimed that the number of children being sent for psychological evaluation is exceedingly high. Read the full story

The existing organ donor legislation in Finland requires permission from the host, but a new amendment proposal will seek to remove the pre-arrangement in a move that authorities claim could save numerous lives. The move is designed to address Finland’s shortage of donated organs which are presently only sourced from those who have signed a donor card. Read the full story

Exhaustion is being attributed in increasing numbers of cases as reason enough for Finnish workers to be granted paid sick leave. Traditionally Finland has used the “Z-diagnosis”, or unpaid leave, which determines that patients who are considered healthy may feel the need to spend time away from the workplace, albeit at their own expense. Read the full story

An ever-growing number of Danish children are deemed to be suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and along with the increased number of diagnoses there has been a huge rise in both prescriptions and medication dosages. Read the full story

The Paramedic Training School, Sjukraflutningaskolinn, and the Red Cross of Iceland, Raudi kross Islands, are planning to host a course in CPR for Palestinian paramedics, nurses and doctors in September, according to the main website of the Akureyri Hospital. Read the full story

Denmark is one of Europe’s most competitive nations when it comes to the availability and cost of generic drugs. A recent study by the European Commission found that competitive pricing and convenient access to generic drugs was keeping the costs low in Denmark. Read the full story

Actavis has decided to give Icelandic health institutions a gift by offering the company’s first hypodermic cancer drugs on the Icelandic market for free. A year’s supply of five different drugs is being made available to Icelandic health institutions without charge: four from 1st April 2009 and one from 1st January 2010. Read the full story

Finland and Sweden are the first nations to approve a new pill to treat premature ejaculation, an embarrassing problem for many men. The drug, created by Johnson & Johnson, is known as dapoxetine but will be marketed under the name Priligy. Read the full story

Ten individuals in Iceland have been struck down with salmonella recently, MBL.is reports. It has now emerged that all ten people stayed in the same hotel on the Greek island of Rhodes at the end of July and beginning of August this summer. Among the affected are a number of college students, some of whom remain very unwell.

The news comes from one of the Surgeon General’s regular reports on infectious diseases in Iceland. It has also come to light that other hotel guests not from Iceland have also been affected by the outbreak.

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