The fight against infectious diseases
The predecessor to today's institute, Statens institutt for folkehelse (SIFF), was founded in 1929 following a donation of 1 million Norwegian kroner from the Rockefeller Foundation. The first director was Einar Aaser. However, the idea of a public institute to address population health issues was born fifty years before and the notion of governmental responsibility for public preventive measures even earlier.[citation needed]
Initially, SIFF was responsible for providing vaccines and sera to the population and performing chemical analyses of water and food. Some years later, SIFF implemented immunisation programmes, but for several decades the scope of the institute was restricted to infectious disease control.[citation needed]
In the 1970s, SIFF established toxicology and epidemiology departments, focusing increasingly on prevention of non-contagious diseases as well as traditional infectious disease control. Health services research was incorporated in the 1980s.[citation needed]
Reorganisation and expansion
In 2002 and 2003, SIFF merged with several other institutions and units to form a new, comprehensive public health institute. The new institute was given responsibility for all health-related population registries, except the Cancer Registry of Norway. It would coordinate all public collection of epidemiological data in the country, as well as conduct forensic toxicology and drug abuse research.[citation needed]
The name changed from Statens institutt for folkehelse to Nasjonalt folkehelseinstitutt but the English name, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, remained the same. The new role as national co-ordinator in several fields emphasised the importance of co-operation with universities, hospitals and other research institutes and a series of national collaborating groups were formed.[citation needed]
In 2005 and 2006, the institute expanded its scope even further, targeting social inequalities in health and establishing a division for mental health. FHI also took on responsibility for the prevention of injury and disease caused by behavioural factors such as smoking, abuse of alcohol and illicit drugs, physical inactivity, obesity and unprotected sex with unknown partners.
The Norwegian Institute of Forensic Medicine was transferred from the University of Oslo to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in 2011, but became part of Oslo University Hospital in 2017. The Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research became part of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in 2016. In 2019 the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies will be transferred from the University of Oslo to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.[citation needed]