News – Page 4 – Sepsis Australia

A new Australian resource is now available to provide information and guidance for sepsis survivors, their friends, families and carers, and bereaved families to help them navigate the often challenging post sepsis period. See: ASN Life After Sepsis (v1.1) 12102020

This guide aims to inform early hospital discharge planning, provide survivors advice for recovery, foster connections with sepsis support groups and assist bereaved families through their grief and sadness. The value of lived experiences of sepsis in providing this support, cannot be underestimated.

Thank you to the ASN Consumer Advisory and Support Group, and Ms Fiona Gray (Chair) for their guidance and contribution to the development of this resource.

This guide is a living document and as such will evolve over time to encompass advances in post sepsis recovery and support.

Thank you Prime Minister Scott Morrison MP for recognising #sepsis on #worldsepsisday. Many Australian survivors and families impacted by sepsis know the true burden & have been working hard for improved action & awareness. Action on sepsis saves lives, limbs & provides economic benefit.

Ahead of World Sepsis Day on September 13, the World Health Organizations first global report on sepsis finds that knowledge gaps are hampering efforts to tackle the millions of deaths and disabilities due to sepsis, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. For more information see: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/334216/9789240010789-eng.pdf

Sepsis kills an estimated 11 million people each year and disables millions more.

With most sepsis studies conducted in hospitals and intensive care units in high-income countries, there is little evidence from the rest of the world. Different definitions of sepsis, diagnostic criteria and hospital discharge coding are also making it difficult to develop a clear understanding of the true global burden of sepsis.

The WHO is calling on the global community to help address these gaps through improved study design and data collection and advocating for greater research funding as well as better surveillance systems, diagnostic tools and education for health workers and communities.

Failure to recognise and treat sepsis results in another tragic and preventable death.

Statement by The George Institute for Global Health Australian Sepsis Network.

The Queensland Office of the Health Ombudsman (OHO) has concluded that ‘systemic failures’ played a role in the tragic death of a young Aboriginal boy named Charlie Izaak Wilfred Gowa, from far north Queensland who was turned away from hospital six times and subsequently died of sepsis Charlies Story

While failure to recognise and treat sepsis has caused preventable deaths and disabilities in people from all walks of life, we know that the burden of severe sepsis falls disproportionately on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

While the need for a broad-based sepsis awareness program for the public and front-line health care workers has been recognised and promoted by the ASN and its partners, it is imperative to consider how this intersects with the wider systemic issue of access to culturally safe care in order to reduce the disproportionate burden for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The George Institute for Global Health and the Australian Sepsis Network support the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan that uses a human rights and social determinants approach and a vision of a health system free of racism and inequality whereby all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have access to health services that are effective, high quality and appropriate.

If we are to reduce the higher incidence of sepsis among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples we must move beyond a strictly biomedical approach to the disease and understand the broader social and cultural determinants of health that lead to such tragedies and system failures.

Charlie’s family have expressed that they want his story to be shared in order to stop further deaths from sepsis and to highlight the need for culturally safe and responsive health care.

Charlie Gowa, six, died from sepsis in January 2017. His mother, Xernona Poi Poi, wants justice for her son.

The Australian Sepsis Network is hosted by The George Institute for Global Health, Australia.

Cost: $25 AUD

Design lead: Prof Simon Finfer

In mid 2017 the World Health Assembly identified Sepsis as a global health priority. Sepsis is “a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection.” The Covid-19 Pandemic has catapulted many of the challenges facing the management of global sepsis into the spotlight. What have we learnt and what actions do we need to take?

In this session we will cover Sepsis and Vaccination through the COVID lens. A clear threat to global health, the burden of Sepsis and Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) is Coda’s first priority in taking action under our “Cure” advocacy pillar. The Coda Zero virtual event designed around Sepsis and Vaccination provides a seamless opportunity to connect and commence this advocacy agenda immediately.

CODA is a global health community that comes together to quickly generate, prove and share revolutionary healthcare ideas to solve urgent global health challenges. CODA has four central commitments to their mission, which provide the framework for the community to act:

On Monday, May 18th and Tuesday, May 19th, the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly took place in Geneva. The Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported on the progress of the 2017 WHA resolution on “Improving the prevention, diagnosis, and clinical management of sepsis“.

The SSC COVID-19 subcommittee panel (36 experts from 12 countries) issued 53 statements based on the available evidence, four of which are best practices based on high-quality evidence:

Sepsis Associated with 1 in 5 Deaths Worldwide, Double Prior Estimates – Children and Poor Regions Hit Hardest

Twice as many people are dying from sepsis worldwide than previously estimated, according to a groundbreaking study by an international team of scientists published in The Lancet today. Among them are a disproportionately high number of children in poor areas.

This study, the most comprehensive clinical study on sepsis to date, revealed 48.9 million cases of sepsis in 2017 and 11 million deaths. 1 in 5 deaths globally are associated with sepsis. Sepsis arises when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs. It may lead to shock, multi-organ failure, and death – especially if not recognized early and treated promptly. For sepsis survivors, it can create lifelong disabilities and suffering.

It was found that about 85% of sepsis cases occurred in low- or middle-income countries – especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, the South Pacific islands, and South, East, and Southeast Asia. While sepsis incidence is higher among females than males, more than 40% of all cases are occurring in children under 5.

“I’ve worked in rural Uganda, and sepsis is what we saw every single day. Watching a baby die of a disease that could have been prevented with basic public health measures really sticks with you. I want to contribute to solving this tragedy, so I participate in research on sepsis. However, how can we know if we’re making progress if we don’t even know the size of the problem? If you look at any top 10 list of deaths globally, sepsis is not listed because it hasn’t been counted.” — LEAD AUTHOR KRISTINA E. RUDD, M.D., M.P.H., ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT PITT’S DEPARTMENT OF CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE

For their analysis, Rudd and colleagues leveraged the Global Burden of Disease Study, a comprehensive epidemiological analysis coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Previous global estimates for sepsis relied upon hospital databases from select middle- and high-income countries, making them severely limited and prone to overlooking the occurrence outside of the hospital, especially in low-income countries.

“We are alarmed to find sepsis deaths are much higher than previously estimated, especially as the condition is both preventable and treatable. We need renewed focus on sepsis prevention among newborns and on tackling antimicrobial resistance, an important driver of the condition.” — SENIOR AUTHOR MOHSEN NAGHAVI, M.D., PH.D., M.P.H., PROFESSOR OF HEALTH METRICS SCIENCES AT IHME AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Although the number of cases are much higher than previously estimated, it is important to note that great international and collaborative work has been done worldwide in the past decades to fight sepsis. These efforts are conveyed in the study which examined annual sepsis incidence and mortality trends from 1990 to 2017. The study found that rates are actually decreasing. In 1990, there were an estimated 60.2 million sepsis cases and 15.7 million deaths, compared to the 48.9 million cases and 11 million deaths in 2017. However, the study highlights we still have a long way to go in the global fight against sepsis and we need to continue to build upon the work being done worldwide.

“This research confirms the urgent need for policymakers, healthcare providers, clinicians, and researchers to work together to implement robust national sepsis strategies, as called for in the 2017 WHO Resolution on Sepsis.” — KONRAD REINHART, PRESIDENT GLOBAL SEPSIS ALLIANCE

For the Global Sepsis Alliance media release and Q&A please see: GSA Press Release

To download visit the App Store and search for “Could this be Sepsis“ or follow the link below:

Treating sepsis patients with steroids leads to quicker recovery and reduces the number of blood transfusions needed, according to ADRENAL – the largest ever international clinical trial on septic shock.

A team of researchers from The George Institute for Global Health – including Professor Simon Finfer of the Australian Sepsis Network – studied whether the use of steroids in treating patients with septic shock would improve outcomes.

Septic shock occurs when sepsis causes dangerously low blood pressure, leading to increased risk of organ failure or death.

The results of the ADRENAL study, involving 3800 patients and published in the New England Journal of Medicine on 19 January, found that steroids reduced the duration of septic shock and the frequency of blood transfusions needed, and decreased the time spent in intensive care. However, the use of steroids as an additional treatment for septic shock did not reduce deaths.

The study lead, Professor Bala Venkatesh of The George Institute, said “Our results show there is still a lot to learn about septic shock which kills up to half of those affected in some parts of the world. But, we have finally shown what part steroids play in the treatment of these patients. If we can reduce the time spent in intensive care units that not only frees up space for other patients, it saves health systems worldwide a huge amount of money.”

The use of steroids to treat septic shock has been accepted practice for more than 50 years, however clinicians were uncertain about the best dose of duration of steroids given to patients.

The ADRENAL trial has shown that although steroids do not reduce death rates in septic shock, their use as an additional treatment led to faster resolution of septic shock, decreased time on mechanical ventilation, and earlier discharge from intensive care.

Study investigator and co-author Professor John Myburgh, of The George Institute, noted “Anyone can get sepsis, young, old, fit and healthy. It does not discriminate. In Australia up to a quarter of people who get septic shock will die with more people losing their lives annually than the road toll.

“It is essential that we raise awareness of this disease so people can get treatment more quickly, but we will also need to find better and more effective care for those who go into septic shock.”