World Sepsis Day is exactly two months away - in case you have not planned an event yet, please find some inspiration for activities for World Sepsis Day on September 13 below.
 

Events for Medical Professionals

• In hospitals, set up staff sepsis awareness stalls with a sepsis quiz and sepsis exhibitions in the lobby
• Offer special educational sepsis trainings for staff around the World Sepsis Day
• Public Viewing of the WSC Spotlight: Maternal and Neonatal Sepsis on September 12, 2017 as an educational program for physicians, nurses, and health care workers
• Organize conferences, symposia, round table discussions, etc.

Public Events

• Hand out information leaflets in busy public spaces like markets, railway or bus stations, and town squares
• Set up small sepsis information stalls, use banners or balloons

• Sport events are a great opportunity for people to watch or take part. Organize a sport event like a city marathon, a bicycle tour, a sepsis team run, a zumba event, or countless other sport activities. Hand out information leaflets along the way. Plan a route where lots of people will see you. 
• Organize a family afternoon, together with sepsis survivors, if possible. Set up stalls and decorate the area to attract people. Think about having some music or performers and something fun for the kids like face-painting or sepsis-related handicraft work.

• Organize a sepsis photo exhibition with collecting photographs of activities in the fight against sepsis, academic, cultural or governmental events or sepsis patient stories. You can also participate in the existing photo exhibition from our friend and supporter Luis Gorordo Delsol from the Juarez Hospital in Mexico. 

• Set up a pink picnic. Pink Picnics are social events where pink is used to signify relation to World Sepsis Day. This can include pink salads or cupcakes, BBQ treats, beverages, plates, other table decor...and whatever you can think of! Use pink balloons for decoration. 

• Organize a Gala Event or a special dinner -  This is a great opportunity to raise awareness for sepsis in your network. For example, check out the Sepsis Heroes Gala Event by the Sepsis Alliance.

In Your Company/Organization

• Pink Cafeteria/Canteen – color your cafeteria/canteen pink, by using leaflets, stickers, pocket cards, balloons, and whatever else you can think of.
• Bake for your colleagues – Why not raise awareness for sepsis among your colleagues by making muffins with pink frosting, or a pink cake? They will certainly talk about you and World Sepsis Day…Make sure to also share leaflets, infographics, stickers, and other goodies with them as well.

Online

Show Your Support on Your Website, Social Media Presence, or Email signature:

• Tweet about or at World Sepsis Day, using the hashtag #wsd17, #stopsepsis, #savelives
• Share a WSD infographic on your Facebook page, or put up a post mentioning @WorldSepsisDay
• Temporarily add a pink banner or a button to your website, or set up a microsite informing your visitors about WSD
• Temporarily add ‘September 13 is World Sepsis Day – Stop Sepsis, Save Lives’ to your email signature
• Organize a Twitter chat, a webinar, a Reddit AMA, a Facebook Live, or a Periscope
   

Promotional Material for World Sepsis DaY 2017

Please go to the toolkit section on the WSD website and download the communication materials for WSD 2017, it includes material for public events, Pink Picnics, Photo Campaigns, etc.

Please visit our shop for ordering WSD articles for your special World Sepsis Day event.

Media Coverage

Use your network and the network of your colleagues, friends, members or supporters, to see if there is the possibility to have your event covered. In any case, inform your local media about your event as early as possible, as this increases the chances dramatically.

World Sepsis Day Event Poster

Like in the past five years, the World Sepsis Day Head Office will collect pictures from your events and create the World Sepsis Day Event Poster 2017, so please make sure to take great and high-resolution pictures of your activities.

Why Is World Sepsis Day Important?

World Sepsis Day is held on September 13th every year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against sepsis. Sepsis accounts for at least 8 million deaths worldwide annually. Yet, depending on country and education, sepsis is known only to 7 – 50 % of the people. Likewise, it is poorly known that sepsis can be prevented by vaccination and clean care and that early recognition and treatment reduces sepsis mortality by 50 %. This lack of knowledge makes sepsis the number one preventable cause of death worldwide.

Why Should You Participate in World Sepsis Day?

World Sepsis Day is a favorable moment to increase public awareness for this poorly acknowledged health care disaster, but also to show support and solidarity with the millions of people who lost their loved ones, or, as sepsis survivors, suffer from long-term consequences of sepsis. World Sepsis Day is a great opportunity to remind the public, media, national, and international health care authorities, health care providers, and health care workers, policy makers, and the governments that there is an urgent need to increase and improve education on the facility, regional, national, and international level. The easiest way to support World Sepsis Day: Share the link for signing the World Sepsis Declaration with your colleagues, families, friends, and everyone that should be informed about sepsis.
 

We wish you good luck in preparing your World Sepsis Day event and thank you for your valuable contribution in the fight against sepsis!

Today, the Global Sepsis Alliance is happy to welcome Abionic as the newest sponsor of World Sepsis Day.

Abionic is a Swiss company positioned at the intersection of medical technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. They have developed the fastest diagnostic platform in the world, allowing the screening of patients that are potentially developing sepsis in 5 minutes. This enables medical staff to significantly accelerate the triage process. 
 

We thank Abionic for becoming a sponsor and look forward to working together. 

About two months from now, on September 12th, 2017, the Global Sepsis Alliance and the World Health Organization will host the WSC Spotlight: Maternal and Neonatal Sepsis. The WSC Spotlight is a free online congress in the style of the 1st World Sepsis Congress last year, but focuses on a particular topic, which is maternal and neonatal sepsis.

The congress will be held in English and is open to everyone with an internet connection.
For more information on program, speakers, time zones, and to register for free, please visit www.wscspotlight.org

In 4 distinctive sessions, 25 speakers from all around the world will share their knowledge on maternal and neonatal sepsis and give updates on sepsis in 10-minute presentations and keynotes. After each talk, the speakers will answer live questions from the audience. After the congress, all presentations will be made available to view on demand on the World Sepsis Congress YouTube Channel and as a Podcast on Apple Podcasts. 

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, new Director-General of the WHO, will open the congress on September 12th, 2017, one day before the sixth World Sepsis Day on September 13th. 

Today, the New England Journal of Medicine published our perspective about the resolution on improving the prevention, diagnosis, and management of sepsis by the World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO’s decision-making body. 

Innumerable patients around the world have died prematurely or faced long-term disability. This toll of unnecessary suffering drove Germany, with the unanimous support of the WHO Executive Board and at the urging of the Global Sepsis Alliance, to propose the resolution adopted by the WHA. The resolution urges member states and the WHO Director-General to take specific actions to reduce the burden of sepsis through improved prevention, diagnosis, and management.

To read the full article, please click here.

For the second year in a row, the Hospital Juárez de México will host the photographic exhibition "Sepsis: Face to Face". We encourage you, your colleagues, and your organization to participate to send a strong signal in the global fight against sepsis. 

The topics of this years photo exhibition are sepsis, hand hygiene, vaccination, and antimicrobial resistance. 

Participation is as easy as taking a picture of you and sending it to registro.nacional.sepsis@gmail.com before August 1st, 2017. 

Please send the photo in electronic form (* .tif, * .tiff, * .gif, * .jpg or equivalent) in the highest resolution possible, preferably 300 PPI. The file must be accompanied by :

• Title of the photo
• Short description of the photograph (< 750 words)
• You should answer one of the following questions:
  • How do I fight against sepsis?
  • How did I survive sepsis?
  • What is sepsis for you?
  • I had sepsis now what?
  • I lost a family member or friend because of sepsis ...
• Author's name
• Place and date
• Camera type (optional)
• Photographic technique (optional)
• Letter of copyright (will be requested in accepted cases)

The authors of the photos accepted for exhibition will be notified by email in August 2017 and will be featured on the website of the "Sepsis Mexico Foundation and on Twitter and Facebook. You can find pictures from last years exhibition here.

All images that contain information that can identify patients or staff must be accompanied by a document that approves the use of the image by those involved in the exhibition and subsequent events. The committee of the photographic exhibition "Sepsis: Face to Face" will carry out the assembly of the exhibition.

For foreign participants, proof of participation will be issued, honorable mention will be given at the discretion of the jury to the best photo (or series). The winners will be announced at the closing of the symposium.
The Photographic Exhibition Committee thanks you for your participation in raising awareness about sepsis.
For more information, please email the Committee Photographic Exhibition directly.

Photo Exhibition 'Sepsis: Face to Face', 2016

A new study of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center analyzed sepsis mortality and its predictors by ethnicity in the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC). Among 191,561 white, African American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese American, and Latino cohort members, 49,347 deaths due to all causes and 345 deaths due to sepsis were recorded during follow-up from 1993-96 until 2010. 

Age-adjusted rates of sepsis death were 5-times higher for Hawaii than Los Angeles. By ethnicity, Native Hawaiians had the highest rate in Hawaii and African Americans in Los Angeles. African Americans showed the highest risk followed by Native Hawaiians as compared to whites. 

The finding that African Americans and Native Hawaiians experience a higher mortality risk due to sepsis than other ethnic groups suggest ethnicity-related biological factors in the predisposition of cancer patients and other immune-compromising conditions to develop sepsis, but regional differences in health care access and death coding may also be important.

The findings from the current analysis indicate certain predispositions of cancer patients for sepsis with minority backgrounds and highlight the importance of paying special attention to these patients. A higher infection rate in non-whites and a higher likelihood to develop organ dysfunction has been documented, but differences in clinical care as shown for African Americans may also be responsible for the higher sepsis mortality. Identification of ethnicity-related genetic factors to the incidence and prognosis of sepsis may aid in developing more complete sepsis prevention, rapid early detection, and effective treatment approaches.

To read the full study, please click here.

Every year, the GSA rewards outstanding efforts in the fight against sepsis with the 'Global Sepsis Awards'.
These outstanding efforts include excellent sepsis awareness and education initiatives, as well as recognize major achievements of governments, organizations and individuals, consistent with the aims of the World Sepsis Declaration and World Sepsis Day Movement. An award jury comprised of internationally recognized experts in patient safety and sepsis management evaluated all award submissions and identified award recipients. The Global Sepsis Awards are sponsored by the Erin Kay Flatley Memorial Foundation.

The awards will be presented to the winners in a ceremony in the context of international or national critical care meetings, such as the International Sepsis Forum (ISF) in Paris.

Our congratulations to the winners in 2017:

Category II: Non-governmental organizations, patient advocate groups or healthcare provider groups

Sepsisdialog University Hospital of Greifswald, Germany

Sepsisdialog, under the leadership of Matthias Gründling, has achieved the following milestones in the the framework of the SepNet Study Group:

• Decreased sepsis mortality at the University Hospital Greifswald well below the German average, as well as compared to other German academic medical centers

• Successful outreach with educational efforts on sepsis recognition and implementation quality improvement initiatives in their region

• Initiated and supported regional and national studies on the epidemiology of sepsis

• Participated in important clinical effectiveness research of the SepNet Study Group

Kamal Osman Mirghani from the Sudanese Sepsis Alliance

The jury was impressed on what the Sudanese Sepsis Alliance has achieved so far:

• Increasing Awareness for Sepsis on the local, regional and national level and celebrating World Sepsis Day in Sudan

• Involving nurses, doctors and medical students in educational efforts

• Implementing evidence based guidelines for the prevention and management of sepsis

• Championing the Sudan Sepsis Alliance and promoting the creation of the African Sepsis Alliance

Category III: Individuals

Adam Linder, Sweden

The jury decided to award Adam Linder from Sweden; they were very impressed on what he and his colleagues have achieved in Sweden in only a few years:

• Founding the Swedish Sepsis Society and organizing national sepsis meetings

• Performing important polls on the knowledge about sepsis in Sweden

• Conducting and publishing pertinent studies on the epidemiology of Sepsis that suggest that the burden of sepsis may still be underestimated

• Involving patients and families in their work

• Reaching out to high profile media representatives, showing an incredible commitment and passion for improving the quality of sepsis care by creating sepsis awareness and sensitizing health care professionals in his hospital and region

Jelena Slijepčević, Croatia

As member of the Croatian Nurses Society of Anesthesiology, Reanimatology, Intensive Care and Transfusion Jelena Slijepčević has launched the campaign „Stop Sepsis“ in Croatia in 2014. In her capacity as president of the campaign, she achieved to roll out this initiative on the national level. The focus is to achieve a better understanding of sepsis by lay people and health care workers, especially to foster the knowledge that early recognition of sepsis is crucial and that sepsis is an emergency like heart attack and stroke. 

She and her colleagues over the years continuously increased the outreach of their campaign not only by celebrating World Sepsis Day on September 13th every year but also by organizing meetings with physicians and nurses, as well as by involving policy makers in their activities. Finally, they published on sepsis in appropriate journals and had an impressive press coverage on their activities and the burden of sepsis in the media.

In category I, Hermann Gröhe, German Minister of Health from 2013 to 2018, was honored with the GSA Award. Due to a very tight schedule, he received his GSA Award in 2018.

The members of the Quality Improvement Committee of the Global Sepsis Alliance have composed a statement regarding the operationalization of the proposed diagnostic criteria for the Sepsis-3 definition in March 2017.

We are happy to announce that said statement has now been officially published in the Journal of Critical Care.
 

The committee is supportive of the updated definition and wish for it to be implemented in such a way that the practice of early recognition and treatment, which has been shown to be effective in reducing sepsis associated mortality, can be balanced by identifying the patients at risk and minimizing overtreatment.

Recently published articles assessing qSOFA, in particular, use the terms ‘diagnostic’ and ‘prognostic’ interchangeably in describing its potential applicability in clinical practice. Our concern is to bring clarity to the available published data and for the safe and appropriate use of the new definition and its proposed diagnostic criteria. In particular, that the clinical context in which the criteria are tested is made very clear so that a prudent assessment of the generalizability of the information can be made and the possibility of harm avoided.