Sepsis the cause of one in five deaths worldwide. According to the World Health Organization's first global report on sepsis, it disproportionately affects vulnerable populations: newborns, pregnant women and people living in low-resource settings. Approximately 85.0% of sepsis cases and sepsis-related deaths occur in these settings. Sepsis kills 11 million people each year, many of them children. It disables millions more according to the publication.
Obstetric infections, including complications following abortion or infections following caesarean section, are the third most common cause of maternal mortality. Globally, it is estimated that for every 1000 women giving birth, 11 women experience infection-related, severe organ dysfunction or death.
Sepsis occurs in response to an infection. When sepsis is not recognized early and managed promptly, it can lead to septic shock, multiple organ failure and death. Patients who are critically ill with severe COVID-19 and other infectious diseases are at higher risk of developing and dying from sepsis.
Improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sepsis
Improved sanitation, water quality and availability, and infection prevention and control measures, such as appropriate hand hygiene can prevent sepsis and save lives - but must be coupled with early diagnosis, appropriate clinical management, and access to safe and affordable medicines and vaccines. These interventions could prevent as many as 84% of newborn deaths due to sepsis.
WHO calls on the global community to:
- Improve robust study designs and high-quality data collection, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
- Scale-up global advocacy, funding and the research capacity for epidemiological evidence on the true burden of sepsis.
- Improve surveillance systems, starting at the primary care level, including the use of standardized and feasible definitions in accordance with the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), and leveraging existing programmes and disease networks.
- Develop rapid, affordable and appropriate diagnostic tools, particularly for primary and secondary levels of care, to improve sepsis identification, surveillance, prevention and treatment.
- Engage and better educate health workers and communities not to underestimate the risk of infections evolving to sepsis, and to seek care promptly in order to avoid clinical complications and the spread of epidemics.
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Read the report, here
