News archive

Many researchers agree that shifting to a more plant-based diet is an important step towards reducing our impact on the climate. A new doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet describes the development and test of a new method of providing sustainable school lunches. The new lunch resulted in a 40 per cent reduction in climate impact with no increase in cost or decrease in consumption.

Anti-retroviral drugs are a vital tool in the prevention and treatment of HIV. A new study of pregnant women in Tanzania shows that life-long antiviral treatment also seems to prevent viral transmission from mother to baby. The results of the study, which was conducted in part by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in Lancet HIV, make a promising contribution to the WHO’s work with HIV prevention in low and middle-income countries.

In countries with a severe shortage of surgeons it is common for some operations to be carried out by medical staff with lower formal qualifications. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have led an international study on the safety and efficacy of a common surgical procedure. The study, published in JAMA Network Open, shows that inguinal hernia operations performed by associate clinicians at a hospital in Sierra Leone were just as safe and effective as those performed by doctors.

As life expectancies rise, so does the risk of dementia. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now studied how an active, non-smoking lifestyle can influence this correlation. The results, which are published in PLOS Medicine, suggest that good cardiovascular health gradually decreases the risk of dementia.

Birth asphyxia is one of the most common causes of neonatal death. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and others have now evaluated a method of resuscitation not previously used by midwives. The study, which is published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that a laryngeal mask is a safe and easy-to-use alternative to other methods and one that is particularly suitable for use in low-income countries.

The global shutdown during the pandemic is particularly harmful to children and teenagers in the poorer parts of the world, said Professor Anna Mia Ekström during an ethics seminar held at KI in November. Also participating at the seminar was state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a method for fast, cheap, yet accurate testing for COVID-19 infection. The method simplifies and frees the testing from expensive reaction steps, enabling upscaling of the diagnostics. This makes the method particularly attractive for places and situations with limited resources, for repeated testing and for moving resources from expensive diagnostics to other parts of the care chain. The study is published in Nature Communications.

While alcohol dependency is becoming increasingly common, it is difficult to obtain help. However, new research presented in a doctoral thesis by Magnus Johansson at Karolinska Institutet shows that web-based CBT is no less effective than face-to-face CBT.

Key factors for health systems to maintain health services when faced with challenges are collaboration, clear decision-making for health system workers as well as flexible response plans, according to a new doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet.

Karolinska Institutet’s Centre for Research on Health Care in Disasters has been tasked by the National Board of Health and Welfare to arrange an education, training and practice package (e.g. on the handling of personal protective equipment) for medical personnel in connection with the Covid-19 outbreak.

Hi there Oliver Dyer, doctoral student at the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet. On Thursday 12 March you will defend your thesis. Tell us, what is your thesis about?

Hi there Erika Saliba Gustafsson, doctoral student at the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet. On Monday 2 March you will defend your thesis. Tell us, what is your thesis about?

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have carried out the first randomised trial of civilians with acute conflict-related wounds at two hospitals in areas affected by armed conflict. The study, which is published in The Lancet Global Health, shows that a new, more costly method of wound treatment is not more effective than standard treatment. The researchers hope to inspire new research projects in conflict zones that could improve the care for these vulnerable patients.

An extensive workshop has been held to further the vision of creating a Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health. Karolinska Institutet is driving the development together with Makerere University in Uganda, with focus on non-communicable diseases and other high burden diseases.

When Nobel prize winner Michael Kremer initially looked at the data of his now famous 1990s Kenya school study, he felt shocked and disappointed. The data showed that more textbooks did nothing to improve educational outcomes, contrary to what most researchers believed. But rather than succumbing to disillusionment, Kremer dug deeper into Kenya’s schooling system to uncover what measures truly did make an impact and found his answer: targeted help for weak students.

Women who have C-sections are no more likely to have children who develop obesity than women who give birth naturally, according to a large study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal PLOS Medicine. The findings contradict several smaller studies that did find an association between C-section deliveries and offspring obesity but did not consider the numerous maternal and prenatal factors that the researchers did in this study.

Altogether SEK 170 million. This is this year's allocation from the European Commission under the funding programme for health in Horizon2020. A total of 20 research projects at Karolinska Institutet are being supported, three of them also coordinated from here: a survey of what we are exposed to in the environment; mapping of the brain's different nerve cells; and a project to bring down the mortality rate in childbirth in four African countries.

As part of the EU Horizon 2020 funded project IMPACT TB, Knut Lönnroth, Olivia Biermann and Kerri Viney from the Department of Public Health Sciences participated in the IMPACT TB consortium meeting and policy dialogue in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Jenny Löfgren from the group Vascular Surgery, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, has together with researchers from Ghana, USA and Sweden, conducted a study on inguinal hernia surgery recently published in JAMA Surgery. The study shows no statistically significant differences in inguinal hernia surgery completed by medical doctors vs. surgeons.

The integration of the UN’s Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals into higher education and the importance of engaging students in the process were in focus at the recent conference, “Rethinking Higher Education: Inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals”.

PhD student Sara Causevic and researcher Helena Nordenstedt at the Department of Public Health Sciences and student Wiebke Mohr at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics started the Women in Global Health Sweden Chapter as a response to the Call to Action on Gender Equality.

Helena Nordenstedt wanted help her young patient – but her act of kindness went wrong.

If we think of a course that impacted our life, a class that truly changed our view of health connected with Human Rights, that class has been the Anne Firth Murray’s MOOC International Women’s Health and Human Rights. Now we took the course to run a seminar series for doctoral, medical and undergraduate students at Karolinska Institutet, all with a local Swedish focus.

Two scientific studies led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet are expected to form the basis of new international recommendations for the treatment of medical abortions and miscarriages – recommendations that may also lead to a change in clinical practice in Sweden.