The health condition of King Harald of Norway, hospitalized in Oslo since last Monday due to hemolytic anemia, worsened over the weekend due to a bacterial blood infection, although he remains stable, according to a statement released late Sunday by the Nordic country’s royal house.
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“The king has received antibiotics for a bacterial blood infection and has responded well to that treatment. The situation is stable. The king will remain at the Kingdom Hospital (Oslo) and, for now, is on sick leave until further notice,” states a brief statement from this institution.
Six days ago, the royal house reported the monarch’s hospital admission, aged 89, after being treated with cortisone for anemia, which caused fluid to accumulate in his body. Harald V had already been on sick leave for several weeks in February and March due to an infection in a leg that required hospitalization in Tenerife (Spain), where he was on vacation.
At that time, it was reported that Harald of Norway would remain on sick leave for two weeks, during which his son, Crown Prince Haakon, would act as regent at a time when his official schedule has decreased since his wife, Princess Mette-Marit, underwent a lung transplant last June. Since then, the future king of Norway’s wife has only been seen on two occasions: first in an image shared by the royal house showing her with her husband celebrating the Norwegian team’s qualification for the World Cup quarterfinals, and last week both were photographed arriving by car at the Oslo hospital to visit the king. Princess Astrid, the monarch’s sister, was also photographed that same Tuesday arriving at the medical center.
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Last Friday, the royal house already issued a statement increasing concern about the monarch’s health by announcing the cancellation of his scheduled commitments for September 1 and 2, when it was initially announced that Harald of Norway would be on sick leave for two weeks. At that time, it was reported that a new statement about his health would be released “next week,” although this was brought forward to Sunday.
This new statement did not specify how much longer the oldest monarch in Europe will remain on sick leave, who has faced various health problems in recent years, with several hospitalizations due to different infections. In recent years, Harald V’s health issues have been more continuous. In early 2024, he underwent surgery in a hospital in the Langkawi Islands (Malaysia), where he was on vacation, to implant a temporary pacemaker. After being transferred to Norway on a medical plane, he was operated on again to place a permanent pacemaker. COVID-19 took him to the hospital in March 2022. In 2023, he was hospitalized again due to an infection. He was last operated on in 2021 for a ligament in the knee, and a year earlier, the heart valve implanted in 2005 was replaced, two years after a tumor was removed from his bladder.
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