Oh, what a year. Thank you for supporting the Global Sepsis Alliance, World Sepsis Day, and the global fight against sepsis throughout 2020 - we really couldn’t do this without you. This year was a very special year for sepsis awareness, despite and because of the challenges presented through the COVID-19 pandemic. Below, we have summarized 2020 for you, and look ahead to our plans for 2021 – a year that will hopefully be much easier for all of us.

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A Look Back on 2020

January / February

The year started out with the publication of the most comprehensive clinical study on sepsis to date in The Lancet - The Global Burden of Sepsis Study. The report exposed the true extent of the burden of sepsis, showing that 1 in 5 deaths globally is associated with sepsis. However, it also highlighted that despite an increase in recorded numbers, demonstrating that the international and collaborative effort in past decades has made a significant impact. The research confirmed the urgent need for this effort to continue, and the need to further implement and enact the 2017 WHO Resolution on Sepsis.

We released our newly designed infographics, World Sepsis Day Flyers, and sepsis awareness pocket cards including the findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study. As always these are free to download so you can spread awareness about sepsis in your networks and organizations.

March

This was the month that the COVID-19 pandemic truly took a grip globally. The World Sepsis Day Head Office moved to working from home, and like most organizations, we needed to re-think how we continue our work through a difficult and strange time.

The 3rd Annual Meeting of the European Sepsis Alliance was moved to being online (and can be watched here) which ensured the collaborative fight against sepsis across Europe could continue despite social distancing measures. Unfortunately, our supporter meeting was regretfully postponed due to the 40th ISICEM in Brussels being canceled where the meeting would be held.

Prof. Konrad Reinhart spoke with other experts at the ‘The Sepsis Comprehensive Center Charité (SCCC)’ Hot Topics - Global Burden, Diagnosis and Adjunctive Therapies and Sepsis and COVID-19. Offering an update on the global burden of sepsis and on novel approaches for the early detection of sepsis and treatments, an essential dialogue needed for the COVID-19 pandemic and for improving sepsis prevention. You can still watch this on YouTube here.

April

Despite the pandemic taking a tight grip over our lives, April turned out to be a month filled with the development of impressive tools to fight sepsis and provide support for those affected. Sepsisfonden began our month with the excellent launch of a wonderful educational video about sepsis (we highly recommend watching or using it as an awareness tool), targeted at younger people.

We also launched our ‘Life After Sepsis’ guide, a free downloadable brochure for guiding survivors and their families. However, we recommend that the general public and health professionals use the guide too.

We also added Spanish and Italian translations of infographics - helping to spread sepsis awareness even further.

The GSA had the opportunity to interview Dr. Mercedes Bonet, the study lead at the WHO who led on the ‘Global Maternal Sepsis Study (GLOSS)’ - which highlighted that every pregnant or recently pregnant woman is at risk of an infection that could trigger sepsis, regardless of where she lives, and it is essential this is recognized to build effect responses worldwide.

We also launched a COVID-19 information page on our website, assembling an international task force of experts to answer the questions of our wider network.

May / June

Our response to a controversial argument about the overestimation of the incidence of sepsis was released in Intensive Care Medicine, outlining that sepsis needs to be established as a global health priority and should not be downplayed.

Fortunately, our voice is being heard, demonstrated in the WHO’s pledge to publish the first global report on sepsis epidemiology and burden. But a greater focus is still needed and we continue to advocate and push for change along with our network.

Executive Committee member Prof. Simon Finfer was 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.

Prof. Flavia Machado was interviewed by JAMA Network about the pandemic in Brazil and confirmed that in most cases people are dying from refractory septic shock. The correlation between COVID-19 and sepsis was becoming very clear to the scientific community.

July / August

We have supported the growth of patients groups as well, whose perspective must be central in the fight against sepsis. We gladly welcomed the creation of the France Sepsis Association. President Jamila Hedjal in July to tell her story about the loss of her son - Farès in 2018 to sepsis, and her brave response to this tragedy. Also thanks to her strong efforts, France is moving forward towards preventing sepsis deaths.

Our World Sepsis Day Infographics and Sepsis Awareness Posters were made available in Turkish - adding to the list of translations in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Finnish, and German.

The CODA ZERO team in July hosted a series of online events, the first one being Pandemic Sepsis: Lessons from COVID19 - Online Event August 5th, 2020. You can still watch this virtual event, and we recommend following them for future events designed to educate, connect, and foster advocacy around global health.

August saw the big launch of our online shop. Now you can easily and securely order anything to make your sepsis awareness event even greater, from apparel like t-shirts and sports jerseys to event material and give-aways like environmentally-friendly balloons, stickers, thumb drives, to printed material like our Pocket Cards for Medical Professionals or Laypeople, and more.

September

September is always a very big month for us, with our focus being on World Sepsis Day. This year was no less busy especially due to our World Sepsis Congress Spotlight: Sepsis, Pandemics, and Antimicrobial Resistance – Global Health Threats of the 21st Century, in partnership with the WHO on September 9th. There were 6 sessions, with over 30 speakers from 20 countries. You can still watch all six sessions if you missed them.

Our friends the German Sepsis Foundation were also very busy this month for World Sepsis Day - hosting a press conference and panel discussion focused on sepsis and pandemics, with high-profile representatives of the healthcare system. German speakers can watch this on YouTube.

We were delighted the promote 17-year-old Allison Guo’s fantastic and beautifully illustrated picture book - COVID-19: Not Just the Flu, COVID-19 Pathogenesis Explained Easily for All. It is free to download and has been peer-reviewed by our very own Prof. Konrad Reinhart.

This year ahead of World Sepsis Day on September 13th, we wanted to ensure that our members and supporters were aware that COVID-19 can lead to sepsis and therefore actions to improve clinical management and raising awareness about sepsis are critical and save lives. We issued a press release to be read and shared across our network.

October / November

We were incredibly excited to officially announce the winners of the 2020 GSA Awards - kindly sponsored by the Erin Kay Flatley Memorial Foundation - to honor outstanding efforts to increase sepsis awareness and raise the quality of sepsis prevention and management, they are even more inspirational in times of COVID-19. The Winners included; Queensland Health, Sepsisfonden, The African Research Collaboration on Sepsis, James Karugba of Holy Innocents Children’s Hospital in Uganda, and David Carlbom who works at the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

We also launched our ‘Stop Sepsis Save Lives’ face masks on our online store - and they are still available for sale.

Our 2020 WSD Event Poster was made available, summarizing hundreds of events and activities that took place for this year’s World Sepsis Day to raise awareness about sepsis. It is available for download and physical copies via our online store.

November ended on an exciting new chapter for the GSA, welcoming in Niranjan ‘Tex’ Kissoon as the new President. On November 10th, 2020, the Board of the GSA elected Tex, who has an extensive background in pediatrics, emergency medicine, and critical care. He has been serving as Vice President of the Global Sepsis Alliance previously and has been an important pillar of the GSA from the very beginning.

As we welcomed in our new president, we reflected on the enormous achievement of the GSA so far thanks to the dedication of our previous president Prof. Dr. Konrad Reinhart - who created the GSA in 2010, and his instrumental efforts in establishing World Sepsis Day in 2012. We are very happy to say that he will remain a pivotal part of the GSA on the executive committee, continuing to support the fight against sepsis.

December

December began with #GivingTuesday, a movement established in 2012 as a response to the consumeristic overdose of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We were very kindly supported through donations, helping us to continue fight sepsis globally - raising awareness, affecting policy and implementing national sepsis plans, educating healthcare providers and laypeople about sepsis, and much more.

We also rounded off this year making our World Sepsis Day Infographics even more accessible globally - and we can now offer them translated into Arabic.

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Looking Ahead to 2021

We will continue to heavily advocate for sepsis to be prioritized as a major global health threat, and this task will be elevated by the major strides made in 2020.

Early in 2021, you can expect a statement in a a medical journey - stay tuned.

We have also started planning our 3rd World Sepsis Congress, titled ‘Advancing Prevention, Survival, and Survivorship of Sepsis and COVID-19’. It’s currently scheduled for April 21st and 22nd, 2021 – save the date!

You can also expect the 2021 GSA Awards, a (online-only) ceremony for the 2020 GSA Award Winners, and, as every year, more material in more languages. We are also planning WSD Supporter Meetings, as well as a couple of events from our Regional Sepsis Alliances.

And of course, as every year we will be promoting World Sepsis Day on September 13th - hopefully with more events and possibilities…here’s to 2021!

Often requested, and finally here – our World Sepsis Day Infographics are now available in Arabic, bringing the total number of languages available up to 9. A huge thanks goes to the Critical Care and Emergency Medicine Pharmacy Speciality Network at Saudi Society of Clinical Pharmacy for their help!

As always, the new infographics are free and quick to download in our World Sepsis Day Toolkit Section – please download them and use them wherever you feel like it, on your social media channels, printed at (socially-distanced) 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 (very 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).

Additionally, our Sepsis Fact Sheet, newly updated in May, is now available in even more languages - we have added Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and German over the last few months. The fact sheet remains the best and simplest way to quickly give someone an overview of the global burden of sepsis and its implications.

We put a lot of thought and time into these new materials – please contact us to give feedback so we can continue to improve them. Lastly, please consider donating to support the ongoing development of our free sepsis awareness resources – thank you so much!

The Tuscany Region has presented a comprehensive document that presents strategies for sepsis recognition and treatment in the various contexts in which sepsis can occur, as well as for the prevention of this serious pathology and of the infections that cause it.

The document is the result of the work of a pool of clinical experts selected within the regional health authorities. The effort is coordinated by the Regional Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety Centre (GRC) and the Agenzia Regionale di Sanità (ARS, Tuscany Region Healthcare Agency). The editors of the document are Giulio Toccafondi from the Quality Improvemnet Committee of GSA and Giorgio Tulli.

This document is based on the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines and on evidence reported in the literature concerning microbiology, clinical care, human factors, quality and safety of care. It proposes a vision of the critical issues that sepsis brings with it to the healthcare system, a vision not attributable to a single disciplinary perspective but rather an expression of multiple viewpoints of team members. The document suggests and indicates approaches that are integrated on both a strategic-organizational level and in clinical-care practice.

The Global Sepsis Alliance welcomes the thorough work of Tuscany Region and is keen to learn about its implementation, including achievements and challenges.

This is a great example of what national, but also regional authorities can do to support their health system’s preparedness to prevent, manage and treat sepsis, as recommended in the WHA 70.7 Resolution on sepsis. The GSA strongly exhort national and regional authorities to undertake similar efforts and stands ready to support such efforts.

Today is #GivingTuesday, a movement established in 2012 as a response to the consumeristic overdose of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Fueled by the power of social media and the sentiment of collaboration, the initiative/movement encourages people to give back to the society and support good causes.

Sepsis affects 47 to 50 million people worldwide every year, with at least 11 million deaths. The majority of sepsis survivors suffer from the consequences of sepsis for the rest of their lives. Sepsis disproportionally affects children under 5 as well as low-resource settings.

With your help, we can continue to fight sepsis globally - raising awareness, affecting policy and implementing national sepsis plans, educating healthcare providers and laypeople about sepsis, and much more.

Your support makes a difference – this year more than ever. Stop Sepsis, Save Lives.

P.S.: You can also help by signing the World Sepsis Declaration, shopping at our online shop, sending our video explaining sepsis to a friend, or by downloading and disseminating our resources raising awareness for sepsis.

Update Dec 8th, 2020: If you signed up to participate, you can access the presentations here.

Original article:

The Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas will be hosting the 2020 Sepsis Awareness Symposium: Sepsis and COVID. The symposium will be held virtually on Friday, December 4, 2020, from 8:00 am - 1:25 pm. Registration is complimentary for other healthcare professionals, residents, fellows, and students.

More than 1.5 million people get sepsis each year in the U.S. At least 250,000 Americans die from sepsis each year and about 1 in 3 patients who die in a hospital have sepsis. With approximately 13 million patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and over 260,000 deaths in the US, we will be incorporating Sepsis and COVID-19 discussions. The mission of this event is to promote awareness of sepsis to the community and healthcare team with the goal of improving patient care.

Credits for physicians, nurses, and respiratory care professionals will be issued.

“If I have seen further”, Isaac Newton wrote in a 1675 letter to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, “it is by standing on the shoulder of giants.”

— Isaac Newton

As we look back over the Global Sepsis Alliance’s first decade, we reflect that our enormous achievements to date are in a large part because we stood on the shoulders of one giant advocate for patients with sepsis, Prof. Dr. Konrad Reinhart.

Great ideas and visions do not arise from the ether, but rather the seeds are planted and nurtured by the creativity, zeal, tenacity, and innovative ideas of exceptional human beings. Konrad had the passion and foresight to see the tremendous burden and ravages of sepsis globally – always with the patient focus at his heart – and had the emotional intelligence and leadership skills to bring organizations from around the world to the table to achieve a greater good.

In December 2010, Konrad brought the World Federation of Intensive Care Societies, the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies, the International Sepsis Forum, the Sepsis Alliance, and the International Federation of Nurses together to create the Global Sepsis Alliance (GSA). Building upon momentum gained from the Merinoff Symposium earlier that same year, and celebrating the progress made by the international Surviving Sepsis Campaign in placing sepsis and septic shock on the world’s academic and health improvement agenda, Konrad’s version was to now take sepsis to a global, regional, and national public and policy level in order to establish a sustained and transformational impact.

The pace of development from the founding of the GSA has been nothing less than astounding. In 2012, Konrad was instrumental in establishing World Sepsis Day on the 13th of September each year. From modest beginnings, WSD now has over 12,000 worldwide supporters across all populated continents, with about half (over 5,900) being hospitals and healthcare facilities. WSD supporters have enthusiastically engaged in the fight against sepsis with programs and activities such as quality improvement initiatives, sepsis protocols, and education of staff and management that have demonstrably improve the prevention and treatment of sepsis.

Also in 2012, the World Sepsis Declaration – with the stated aim to decrease deaths from sepsis by 20% by 2020 – was promulgated under Konrad’s leadership. Supporting the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 for Good Health and Well-Being (particularly the reduction of maternal, child, and neonatal mortality and non-communicable disease burden, and universally accessible health coverage), the declaration has been adopted by almost 6,000 hospitals and healthcare facilities. The Declaration and projects arising from it have seen huge regional and national successes such as those in New York State, the United Kingdom, and Australia, undoubtedly saving countless lives.

Under Konrad’s leadership, 2016 saw the launch of the World Sepsis Congress (WSC), a hugely impactful online congress attended by more than 15,000 health professionals, policymakers, and members of the public from 146 countries. This biennial meeting is interceded by WSC Spotlight meetings, each with a unique focus. The 2020 World Sepsis Congress Spotlight: “Sepsis, Pandemics, and Antimicrobial Resistance – Global Health Threats of the 21st Century” was attended by more than 10,000 delegates from 180 countries.

Also under Konrad’s leadership, the Task Force for the World Sepsis Resolution was created in 2014 with the intent of getting the World Health Assembly to adopt a Resolution on Sepsis. Submitted in January 2017, this was finally passed in May of that same year, marking a quantum leap in the fight against sepsis by making sepsis a WHO global health priority.

Konrad was tireless in his commitment to improving sepsis care and led two World Sepsis Congress Spotlight collaborative meetings with the WHO focusing on maternal and neonatal sepsis around the world and building on collaborative initiatives such as the Global Maternal Sepsis Study. He also drove regional change by supporting the formation of regional sepsis alliances including the African Sepsis Alliance, followed by Alliances in Europe, the Asia Pacific region, and the Eastern Mediterranean region with special recognition to the role already held by the Latin American Sepsis Institute.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, under Konrad’s leadership, the GSA has continued to influence change, passing the milestone of 100 member organizations and working with the WHO again on a press release for World Sepsis Day 2020 and the second collaborative World Sepsis Congress Spotlight. As the year comes to a close, the GSA is working with the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine and Society for Critical Care Medicine on a position statement reinforcing that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is yet another pathogen that can precipitate deadly sepsis.

All of us who have been touched by Konrad’s enthusiasm for improving outcomes from sepsis over the last decade know that this enthusiasm is rooted in an altruistic system of beliefs around injustice and inequality, resulting in a passion that has led to systemic change. His optimistic and exuberant personality, coupled with his unwavering determination and vigor, results in an infectious combination that makes his requests hard to decline. Fortuitously, this has only resulted in good as his strategy is almost always spot on.

We now find ourselves looking ahead to the post-Konrad era. Similarly determined, and with equal collective passion and expertise, we are committed to growing Konrad’s legacy to ensure a world free of avoidable harm from sepsis. The task ahead, whilst exciting and right, would be daunting enough without a Konrad-sized void. The Executive Committee is incredibly relieved, hugely grateful, and massively indebted to his decision to remain a member of the Committee for a period of 18 months – after having stepped down as President earlier this month – with a view to ensuring a seamless and effective handover, together with his commitment to impart his wisdom as needed in the years to come.

If asked, Konrad’s humility would cause him to declare that his greatest contribution has been building this team. We would respectfully argue that his greatest contribution is his vision and that his greatest achievement has been putting sepsis on the world stage.

Download Poster

The 2020 WSD Event Poster is now available, summarizing hundreds of events and activities that took place for this year’s World Sepsis Day to raise awareness about sepsis. You can download it on the WSD website in a ‘view version’ to share online (2.4 MB) and in a ‘print version’ (12 MB, high resolution) to print it yourself and display within your organization or institution.

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Order Printed Copies

For the next 14 days, until December 8th, 2020, you can order free printed copies of the 2020 WSD Event Poster via our shop - shipped free of charge to your home or office, as a token of appreciation for your support of World Sepsis Day. Please use the discount code ‘POSTER’ to get free shipping. Take advantage of the offer by adding anything from our online shop (including our new face masks). Free shipping is valid as long as you order at least one poster and use the discount code. Both offers expire December 8th. If you need an item from our shop urgently, please note that orders which include a poster will be shipped in the second half of December, once the posters have been printed. Lastly, please understand that free copies of the poster are limited to 3 copies per institution.

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Report Mistakes / Add Events

Assembling and designing the poster requires a good amount of work - if you find any mistakes, please let us know. We’ll fix them and re-upload a corrected version. Also, due to the current situation worldwide, several events had to be canceled or postponed. If your event took place later or online, or is missing for any other reason, please contact us.

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Donate to Support World Sepsis Day

This year more than ever, donating to the causes close to your heart is vital - literally. We’d be honored to put your donation to the global fight against sepsis to good use.

From November 18th to 24th, World Antibiotic Awareness Week aims to increase global awareness about the misuse of antibiotics and the risks posed by resistant bacteria.

Timely and targeted antimicrobial stewardship in the context of appropriate urgent therapy represents the cornerstone of effective sepsis therapy. Adult patients who receive antimicrobials within three hours of sepsis recognition have increased chances of survival. Similarly, in children with sepsis and septic shock, several cohorts report substantially better outcomes in those who receive timely intravenous antibiotics. We remain mindful that antimicrobial resistance represents a serious threat: it has been estimated that AMR contributes to at least 10% of sepsis deaths worldwide.

Over the past years, stimulating controversy on the use of antibiotics in sepsis treatment has perhaps overlooked that the aims of sepsis campaigns in fact closely align with the global agenda on antimicrobial stewardship: delivering the right antimicrobial for the right patient, and stopping antibiotics where they are no longer necessary.

The Surviving Sepsis Campaign recommends, in fact, to initiate sepsis treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics covering the main likely pathogens, followed by narrowing to targeted therapy if a pathogen or source is identified, and stopping antimicrobial therapy if bacterial or fungal infection is felt unlikely to be the cause. Indiscriminate administration of early antibiotics is not only unnecessary but may also lead to increased costs and adverse effects on the patients or their community, such as the spread of increased antimicrobial resistance.

AMR was one of the themes of this years’ World Sepsis Congress Spotlight - the talks and presentations are available here. The Global Sepsis Alliance and the World Sepsis Day Movement strongly believe that prompt sepsis treatment can be achieved with the responsible and effective use of antimicrobials.

The World Health Organization and many other organizations produce material and organize events to encourage best practices among the general public, health workers, and policymakers to avoid the further emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections – we encourage you to join their campaign.