We are thrilled to release our new 2020 Infographics today - with a brand-new design that is more mature, easier to read and comprehend, and, more importantly, including the findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study released in The Lancet last week.

As always, the new infographics are a quick and free download in our World Sepsis Day Toolkit Section – please download them and use them as you see fit, on your social media channels, printed at your events, and everywhere in between. They are available only in English for now, but we are working hard to translate them in the coming weeks.

There is a total of 21 infographics, nine on sepsis itself, ranging from symptoms, sources, prevention, risk groups, to physiology, post-sepsis symptoms, and more. Additionally, there are two on hand-washing, and ten more highlighting the relationship to other World Health Days, such as World AIDS Day, World Hepatitis Day, and more. The infographics are available as images (.jpg), as well as optimized for print (.pdf).

We put a lot of thought and time into the new infographics – please contact us to give feedback so we can improve them even further. Lastly, please consider donating to support the ongoing development of our free sepsis awareness resources – thanks!

Our dad came down with, what he thought was, the flu. He spent a few days at home trying to kick the sickness. He complained of fever, chills, retching, diarrhea, and waking up in a pool of sweat. He eventually ended up in the local hospital ER due to the symptoms not getting any better. The hospital did not know what was wrong with him but continued to monitor him overnight. I talked to him on the phone while he was there, and he revealed that his potassium levels were critically low, and he was unable to urinate. Little did I know that this would be the last time I would speak with him.

During the early morning hours of the next day, he went into cardiac arrest and the doctors spent 20 minutes getting him stable enough to fly to Reno, Nevada. At this point, our family was notified by one of his nurses that we needed to get to Reno immediately. He went into cardiac arrest for a second time upon arrival to the ICU. He was stabilized, put into a medically induced coma, and placed on a respirator. His fever was 105 degrees, yet his fingers were ice cold. He completed a round of dialysis to remove some of the toxins from his blood. It was then that we were taken into “the room” at the hospital. The room in which we were informed that my dad would not make it through the night. News you never want to hear. We watched as my dad’s body slowly shut down. His kidneys, heart, and lungs were all shutting down. He had low blood pressure and an elevated heart rate. He was maxed out on all medications. We were told it may be best to sign a DNR (do not resuscitate) because they would just end up breaking his ribcage trying to bring him back again and they were unsure if he was still in there as far as brain activity. He passed away the morning of October 13, 2017.

The doctors noted ‘septic shock of an unknown cause’ and ‘multi-organ failure’ on his death certificate. They mentioned that is was a gastrointestinal infection that lead to sepsis. We never found out the actual bacteria (or other agent) that caused the septic shock.
The hours leading up to that morning are engrained into my memory. Memories that I can replay clear as day. And even now, all I am left with is constant thoughts of “what if” and confusion of how something like this could’ve happened. There is nothing I wouldn’t give to bring him back.

I want people to be aware and spread knowledge. Know the signs of sepsis. Get immediate medical help. Don’t let sepsis take the life of another loved one.

In loving memory of our dad, Shaun O’Connor. You are so missed.

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The article above was written by Caitlin and Brianne O’Connor, Shaun’s daughters, and is shared here with their explicit consent. The views in the article do not necessarily represent those of the Global Sepsis Alliance. They are not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The whole team here at the GSA and World Sepsis Day wishes to thank Caitlin and Brianne for sharing her father’s story and for fighting to raise awareness for sepsis.

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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

This research was funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (grants T32HL007287, T32HL007820, R35GM119519), the University of Pittsburgh, the British Columbia Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Fleming Fund. Of the 23 authors that contributed to this paper, 4 are members of the Executive Committee of the Global Sepsis Alliance.

Download Press Release + Q&A (PDF)

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Download Template for Press Release + Q&A (editable)

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For international media inquires, please contact Kathryn Hendrick.

Kathryn.Hendrick@global-sepsis-alliance.org

+1 416 277 6281

The Titanic in Belfast, venue of the Critical Care Reviews Meeting 2020

The most comprehensive clinical study on sepsis will be released in The Lancet this Thursday, January 16th, 2020 at 18:05h Central European Time. This research contains the most far-reaching and up-to-date data on the incidence and mortality of sepsis worldwide. This study has the potential to change health policy and disease management all around the world, in both developing and under-developed countries.

The results of said study will be presented at the Critical Care Reviews Meeting this Thursday, January 16th, 2020, at 16:35h Belfast Time (17:35h Central European Time, please click here to see to the event in your time zone). There will be a livestream available (embedded below for your viewing convenience), where you’ll be able to follow along. We urge you to tune in and share the link with your colleagues and other interested parties.

As soon as the presentation has concluded, we’ll share the new numbers on the global burden of sepsis, as well as further documentation.

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Livestream

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Update March 30th: Due to the current situation worldwide, the deadline has been extended to June 30th, 2020.

Original article:

Applications and nominations for the 2020 GSA Awards are now open.

The GSA Awards honor major contributions in the fight against sepsis every year and are exclusively and kindly sponsored by the Erin Kay Flatley Memorial Foundation.

The awards are granted in three categories:

1. Governments and healthcare authorities

2. Non-Governmental organizations, patient advocate groups, or healthcare provider groups

3. Individual nominees

In addition to recognition, prestige, and of course a beautiful trophy, winners of category 2 and 3 are awarded $ 2,500 each.

The deadline to apply or nominate is Tuesday, March 31st, 2020. Please share this opportunity with your colleagues, friends, and other interested parties.

If you are having technical troubles, any questions, or feedback on the application process, please contact us.

From the whole Team here at the Global Sepsis Alliance, we wish you a happy new year – much happiness, success, and health to you and your loved ones in 2020.

2020 will be the next milestone year for sepsis awareness - we have a January full of exciting news coming up, such as the 2020 GSA Awards, new data on the global burden of sepsis, updated infographics, and more. An overview of our plans for 2020 is available here.

As of today, all toolkits available for download in our WSD Toolkit Section have been updated for 2020 - with updated WSD logos, an updated powerpoint template, and much more. The new 2020 WSD Infographics will be released in the second half of January.

Thank you for supporting the Global Sepsis Alliance, World Sepsis Day, and the global fight against sepsis throughout 2019 - we really couldn’t do this without you. This year was another great year for sepsis awareness – below we outline the strides taken and a look ahead to our plans for 2020.

A Look Back on 2019

January/February/March

The year started out with the 2nd Annual Meeting of the European Sepsis Alliance, a WSD Supporter Meeting at ISICEM in Brussels, and the 2019 GSA Awards.

April/May/June

In April, the Dubai Resolution was adopted and the Eastern Mediterranean Sepsis Alliance established, the newest one of our regional sepsis alliances. On May 5th, we again celebrated World Hand Hygiene Day with a myriad of events, like the official song, a WHO teleclass, and more.

July/August/september

In July, we significantly improved our websites with all new graphics and launched the new World Sepsis Day Flyer, as well as opened up orders for free marketing material, kindly supported by AMOMED.

In August, we launched the new website of the European Sepsis Alliance and recommended a Ted Talk on sepsis - still worth watching if you didn’t find the time back then…Later in August, and in preparation for World Sepsis Day, we released our new Sepsis Awareness Clips, little video clips explaining different aspects of sepsis which you now can download in our toolkit section. They are based on our original “What Is Sepsis? (sepsis explained in 3 minutes)”-video, which of course remains available on YouTube in 7 languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Turkish, and German). It has been watched on YouTube over 300,000 times, as well as shown at countless medical congresses, meetings of sepsis survivors, and other places.

Over the course of the summer (and in preparation for months), we revamped our governance structure, held a meeting with all our members, adopted new articles, and elected a new board and executive committee. All these changes were made to involve greater diversity of members and collaborators, representing more regions, and extending our reach and global impact.

In September, we celebrated our 8th World Sepsis Day – in addition to many amazing events, summarized on the 2019 WSD Event Poster, our social channels generated a lot of heat, with #WorldSepsisDay trending on Twitter and our Facebook page reaching more than 2.7 million people.

October/November/December

In October, we held not one but two supporters meetings, one at ESICM in Berlin, and the other one at the World Congress of Intensive Care in Melbourne.

In November, we highlighted the relationship between antibiotics and sepsis for World Antibiotic Awareness Week, supported the joint call on patient safety and healthcare-associated infection prevention and control, and improved our websites once again with the addition of a native site-wide dark mode. Later in November, we helped launch the new website of the Asia Pacific Sepsis Alliance and finally released the 2019 WSD Event Poster.

In December, we moved into our new office at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, the Karachi Sepsis Declaration was adopted, and we announced the 2020 WSC Spotlight for March 11th, 2020.

Throughout the Year

Over the year, we released even more material for our toolkit section, such as infographics and pocket cards in more languages, new Sepsis Awareness Posters, the WSD Photo Challenge, as well as shared more stories by sepsis survivors, highlighted and commented on recent sepsis-related studies, and much more. Last but not least, the team here at the Head Office grew, with Simone joining us in October to coordinate the regional sepsis alliances, and Siobhan joining us in December, replacing Angelika who left us in October. We’d like take a moment to thank Angelika for all the work she has done for the Global Sepsis Alliance over the last years - you will be missed Angelika, thank you!

Plans for 2020

2020 will be the next milestone year for sepsis awareness, with many amazing projects and initiatives (some of them still secret). We’ll start by opening applications and nominations for the 2020 GSA Awards in early January – stay tuned for that. On January 16th, at the Critical Care Reviews Meeting 2020 in Belfast, new data on the global burden of sepsis will be presented. The presentation will be live-streamed, and we’ll make sure to share the link with you shortly before the event - check back here in early January to not miss it. We expect to be able to open registrations for the WSC Spotlight: Sepsis and Antimicrobial Resistance – An Existential Threat in January as well.

We are also currently overhauling our infographics and drafting the 2030 World Sepsis Declaration, so it’ll be a busy start of the year.

The WSC Spotlight will take place on March 11th, 2020, free of charge and completely online. We’ll have some amazing speakers lined-up to explore the relationship between antimicrobial resistance and sepsis. Also in March, we’ll host the 3rd Annual Meeting of the European Sepsis Alliance in Brussels, as well as another WSD Supporter Meeting at ISICEM, most likely on March 24th.

We are currently exploring the idea at hosting another Side Event to the World Health Assembly in May, but haven’t made a decision yet. We’ll let you know via our websites and the socials if there is something to announce.

By August at the latest, we plan to open a new World Sepsis Day Store, where you can get merchandise for your events and to raise awareness for sepsis throughout the year. Additionally, over the course of the summer, we plan to again partner with a sponsor (contact us if you are interested) to send out free WSD marketing material, like we did in 2019.

In September, it’ll be time for the 3rd World Sepsis Congress, as well as the 9th World Sepsis Day. We already have some ideas – stay tuned. If you have cool ideas for events for World Sepsis Day, let us know. As for the 3rd WSC, we’ll announce a date in the first half of 2020.

In October, we plan to host another WSD Supporter Meeting, this time at ESICM LIVES in Madrid. We’ll also keep our eyes open for more opportunities for supporter meetings throughout the year.

Over the course of the year, we expect our regional sepsis alliances and membership to grow significantly, as well as to launch a website for the Eastern Mediterranean Sepsis Alliance, which has been founded recently. There will be news regarding GSA Advance and our GSA Committees in 2020 as well.

Of course, we’ll also continue to raise awareness on social media (you should really follow us), as well as via WSD News, our email newsletter which goes out every 5 to 9 weeks. If you aren’t subscribed, you are missing out.

Happy Holidays 🎅

We would like to thank all of you - our supporters, colleagues, friends, volunteers, members, and partners for a great 2019. We wish everybody happy holidays and a good start into the new year, as well as happiness, success, and above all, health. See you in 2020!

Update January 27th, 2020: Due to unforeseen circumstances, we will have to postpone the 2020 WSC Spotlight - it will not take place on March 11th, 2020. Subsequently, registrations will not start in January 2020, either. We will update this post as soon as we know the new date.

Original article:

On March 11th, 2020, we will bring you the ‘WSC Spotlight: Sepsis and Antimicrobial Resistance – An Existential Threat’, an innovative and free online congress exploring the relationship between sepsis and antimicrobial resistance.

Over the course of 8 sessions, around 50 speakers from multiple countries and backgrounds will give short but insightful talks – ranging from framing the global burden of AMR and sepsis, to potential synergies in the fight against both, to how inequalities impact responses to sepsis globally, and much, much more.

Registrations will open in January 2020, and the full program, incl. all speakers and time zones, will be available at that time as well.

World Sepsis Congress is a free online congress bringing knowledge about sepsis to all parts of the world. All the large World Sepsis Congresses take place every two years in the even years (1st WSC in 2016, 2nd WSC in 2018, 3rd WSC in 2020, and so on), while in the uneven years in between, WSC Spotlight shines a spotlight on one specific issue of sepsis.
All talks from World Sepsis Congress and WSC Spotlight are recorded and are available on our YouTube Channel and on Apple Podcasts. They have been accessed over 260,000 times as of December 2019.