The European Sepsis Alliance (ESA) welcomes the WHO European Work Program (EWP) 2020-2025 and believes that the program’s priorities respond to the main challenges that society is facing and that need a strong and globally coordinated response. We thank the WHO Europe Office for the opportunity to comment on the document and wish the WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr. Kluge and his team much success in the coming years. The ESA is keen to support the EPW 2020-2025 with our pool of experts with different medical backgrounds from all over Europe.

The COVID-19 crisis reminds us that infectious diseases and sepsis present a major global health threat. It is important to note that from 2 to 5% of patients with COVID-19, and as many as 25-50% of those hospitalized, develop complications such as sepsis and septic shock, tragically contributing to the already enormous burden of deaths from sepsis. Sepsis affects yearly between 47 and 50 million people worldwide and causes 11 million deaths[1]. According to the latest estimates, sepsis affects around 3,4 million Europeans and causes almost 700.000 deaths yearly[2], the majority of which is preventable. Sepsis care must be part of standard infectious disease and pandemic response.

Therefore, ESA suggests including under Core priority 2, point 2. “Enhance country preparedness and response capacity”, national infection management plans, that would include sepsis prevention, diagnostic and treatment, as already recommended by the 2017 WHA Resolution 70.7 on sepsis.

Regarding core priority 3, point 3 “Safer health care”, ESA suggests including the promotion of early recognition systems, standardized emergency treatments, and allocation of necessary resources to prevent and treat sepsis.

You can consult ESA’s full response to the public consultation below.

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[1] Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990–2017: analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study – The Lancet

[2] Mellhammar L, Wullt S, Lindberg Å, Lanbeck P, Christensson B, Linder A. Sepsis Incidence: A Population-Based Study. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2016;3(4):ofw207. Published 2016 Dec 8. doi:10.1093/ofid/ofw207

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On Saturday, November 24th, 2018, I tragically lost my son Farès, a child just 13 years old, to sepsis caused by appendicitis.

Farès was a brilliant student attending 4th grade of a college in the Paris region, France.

The week preceding his death, he suffered from abdominal pain and vomiting. During this week, Farès underwent several consultations with both general practitioners and hospital doctors. Everyone came to the same medical finding. According to the doctors, Farès suffered from gastroenteritis. It was a chaotic journey!

Finally, after the fourth doctor visit, Farès was hospitalized, but unfortunately, he did not undergo a radiological examination, only a biological assessment which showed inflammation that did not raise concern for the medical team.

Farès had two major pain attacks in the night of his hospitalization, which were not seen as an emergency, while I kept actively requesting the presence of a doctor. Eventually the next morning, Farès had a septic shock, and even though I was present and alerted the team immediately so that he would be taken care of, the team persisted in saying that it was an anxiety attack.

However, at this point, Farès was at only 60% oxygen saturation, his skin began to mottle and his blood pressure was low. It was then when he would have a cardiac arrest and died in front of me.

Following this drama, I started my research on sepsis and it was then when I discovered that it is a major global public health problem. That's how I got in touch with both the Global Sepsis Alliance and the European Sepsis Alliance. Thanks to these organizations, the latter will mark the beginning of my fight.

I created the France Sepsis Association, an association of patients and families affected by sepsis whose objectives are to raise awareness among the general public and health professionals. Our goal is to avoid deaths caused by sepsis thanks to rapid treatment and early recognition by general practitioners, who should refer patients to the appropriate care unit.

My ambition is to help European and global organizations to lower the mortality rate. Sepsis deaths are preventable if taken care of early and through active education.

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The article above was written by Jamila Hedjal and is shared here with her 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 Jamila for sharing her son’s story and for fighting to raise awareness for sepsis.

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During the last couple of months, healthcare systems all around the world were and still are confronted with an extraordinary challenge. The pandemic affects all of us, yet it seems to impact each individual differently.

Hospitalized and preterm newborns are especially vulnerable, which in turn has an effect on their parents. There have been many parents struggling with the very restricted or even prohibited access to the neonatal units due to COVID-19.

This separation of parents from their babies has been decided upon using no current evidence and the long-term consequences of the restrictions are enormous. The lack of skin-to-skin care, breastfeeding, and the exclusion of the parents in their babies’ care affect newborns and their parents alike.

Babies born prematurely often have a weakened immune system, making them especially susceptible to sepsis.

Today the GLANCE Network started its global campaign "Zero Separation. Together for better care!" - keep preterm and sick babies close to their parents. The GLANCE (Global Alliance for Newborn Care) wants to raise the awareness of the need to adequately support families and babies born too soon, too small, and too sick - a case wholeheartedly supported by the Global Sepsis Alliance and the World Sepsis Day Movement.

GSA Executive Committee member Prof. Flavia Machado was interviewed by the JAMA Network on "Coronavirus in Brazil - Report From The Front Lines" - embedded above and available on YouTube directly.

The interview provides a very insightful overview on how Brazil is tackling the pandemic, the efficiency of treatments, and solutions adopted by hospitals to respond to the crisis. Interestingly, Prof. Machado confirmed that in most cases people are dying from refractory septic shock rather than refractory hypoxemia.

Besides, she noted that the usual differences between high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where 85% of sepsis cases occur, are not so visible with COVID-19. In fact, the most affected countries have been HICs so far.

Prof. Machado is chair of the intensive care session of Anesthesiology, Pain and Intensive Care Department at the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil, and CEO of the Latin American Sepsis Institute (LASI).

We are happy to have our World Sepsis Day Infographics and Sepsis Awareness Posters now available in Finnish, in addition to English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. These include the brand-new design that is easier to read and comprehend, and, most importantly, include the staggering findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study released in The Lancet in January.

As always, the new infographics and posters 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.

Like in the other languages, there are 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 (even more important nowadays), and ten more highlighting the relationship to other World Health Days, such as World AIDS Day, World Immunization Week, and more. The infographics are available as images (.jpg), as well as optimized for print (.pdf).

All posters are optimized for print, A3 (297 × 420 millimeters, 11.69 × 16.54 inches), and PDF. They are a quick and free download in our WSD Toolkit Section. We encourage you to download, print, and hang them up in your organization to raise awareness of sepsis.

We put a lot of thought and time into the posters and 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!

The GSA congratulates the Executive Committee member Professor Simon Finfer for being awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to intensive care medicine, to medical research and education, and to global health institutes.

On June 8th 2020, the Governor-General announced the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honors List, recognizing 933 Australians.

“This list recognizes a group of outstanding Australians who have made a contribution to their community, to Australia globally or domestically. Their efforts have been noted by their peers, they have been nominated and assessed independently as worthy of recognition”, the Governor-General said.

Besides other roles, Professor Finfer has been in charge of intensive care research at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney for nearly 30 years and he is Director of Intensive Care at the Sydney Adventist Hospital.

In the interview to the Australian broadcaster ABC, Professor Finfer talks about the challenges that COVID-19 has posed to the Australian health system and about the preparedness and effective response of the country to the pandemic.

In The Sydney Morning Herald, Professor Finfer highlights the link between COVID-19 and sepsis. "People who are dying of coronavirus disease in intensive care units are dying of sepsis," he said. "The coronavirus infects the lungs, and in severe cases, leads to sepsis resulting in kidney, liver, and other organs failing."

Update July 1st, 2020: Applications for the 2020 GSA Awards are now closed. The jury will examine all candidatures and the winners will be communicated in the coming weeks.

Original Article:
Applications and nominations for the 2020 GSA Awards close June 30th, 2020. If you know of any aspirational sepsis related projects, please encourage them to apply, or nominate them yourself.

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.

Our new 2020 WSD Infographics are now available in Portuguese and French, in addition to English, Spanish, Italian, and German. These include a brand-new design that is more mature, easier to read and comprehend, and, most importantly, include the staggering findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study released in The Lancet in January.

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.

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 (even more important nowadays), and ten more highlighting the relationship to other World Health Days, such as World AIDS Day, World Immunization Week, 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!