Raising awareness to reduce sepsis burden

 “Since the launch of the Global Sepsis Alliance in 2010 we have obtained quite a momentum,” said Professor Dr Konrad Reinhart. “The International Federation of Emergency Medicine (IFEM) has joined the group, as has the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). We want to use the introduction of Global Sepsis Day as an opportunity to spread the positive experiences that have already been made in some countries.” World Sepsis Day was officially launched by Prof. Reinhart at the International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, which took place in Brussels in March and received good press coverage across Europe. Since the initial launch, there have also been a series of national and international meetings to further discuss World Sepsis Day. In the developed world, sepsis has increased at an annual rate of between 8% to 13% over the last decade, and now claims more lives than bowel and breast cancer combined. Reasons for this are diverse, but include the ageing population and the development of drug-resistant and more virulent varieties of infections. In the developing world, malnutrition, poverty, lack of access to vaccines and timely treatment all contribute to death. “The increasing use of high-risk interventions in all age groups also makes sepsis a major limitation for the progress of high-end medicine, warned Prof. Reinhart. “Surgical techniques are getting better but if we are not able to recognise the symptoms of sepsis early with the timely administration of adequate therapy, we may lose much of the potential progress that comes with these improving techniques.” Sepsis is one of the most common, yet least-recognised illnesses in the world today. Globally, 20 to 30 million patients are estimated to be afflicted every year, with over six million cases of neonatal and early childhood sepsis and over 100,000 cases of maternal sepsis. Worldwide, a person dies from sepsis every few seconds. Despite these alarming figures, polls have shown that the majority of the general public still do not know what sepsis is and it is not a term that is widely used in the media either. This lack of knowledge has had an impact on the degree of public funding that is made available for sepsis research. Today, sepsis remains the primary cause of death from infection despite advances in modern medicine, including vaccines, antibiotics, and acute care with hospital mortality rates between 30% and 60%. The Global Sepsis Alliance is hoping to increase the level of understanding of sepsis, both among the general public and healthcare professionals with the launch of World Sepsis Day, on 13 September.

Goals for sepsis

 The Global Sepsis Alliance (GSA) has produced the World Sepsis Declaration which cites a list of goals, together with five key targets that need to be achieved before 2020. The goals of the Declaration include: