On World Prematurity Day, 17 November, we raise awareness of the challenges and the burden of preterm birth. This day was initiated by EFCNI and European parent organizations in 2008 and joined by the US organization March of Dimes, the African organization LittleBigSouls, and the Australian National Premmie Foundation in 2010, to honor the 15 million babies that are born preterm every year, worldwide. Today, individuals and organizations from across the world join forces with activities and events to draw attention to the topic of preterm birth and to eventually improve the situation of preterm babies and their families.

The symbol for World Prematurity Day is the socksline. The small pair of purple socks – framed by nine full-size baby socks – symbolizes: 1 in 10 babies is born preterm. Worldwide.

This year’s global World Prematurity Day motto is “Zero separation - Act now! Keep parents and babies born too soon together”. This claim is a reaction to how the pandemic has particularly affected families with a hospitalized and/or preterm baby. In order to protect both staff and patients from contracting and spreading the virus, many clinics and hospitals were forced to take strict safety precautions and put rigorous hygiene measures in place.¹ Unfortunately, this has also meant that the contact between parents and their baby was often massively restricted if not fully prohibited. In some cases, the health situation became so precarious that even staff and equipment had to be moved from the neonatal units to the COVID-19 wards, a measure that has greatly affected the care for these neonates.²

Compared to babies born full-term, babies born prematurely often have a weaker immune system and are more likely to receive intensive medical treatment, making them especially susceptible to sepsis. An infection can be transferred during invasive medical procedures such as intravenous lines or breathing support by a mechanical ventilator.

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¹Neonatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic – a global survey of parents’ experiences regarding infant and family-centred developmental care. EClinicalMedicine. 2021;39:101056. Kostenzer J, Hoffmann J, von Rosenstiel-Pulver C, Walsh A, Zimmermann LJI, Mader S. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101056

²Rao SPN, Minckas N, Medvedev MM, et al. Small and sick newborn care during the COVID-19 pandemic: global survey and thematic analysis of healthcare providers’ voices and experiences. BMJ Global Health 2021;6:e004347. doi:10.1136/ bmjgh-2020-004347 (https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/3/e004347)

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The article above was written by Sarah Fuegenschuh, Head of Communications, EFCNI. Thanks, Sarah!

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Every November, Movember is celebrated all around the world, raising awareness for men’s health, especially focused on mental health, suicide prevention, as well as prostate and testicular cancer.

This year, with the COVID Pandemic still raging in many parts of the world and significantly affecting the mental health of millions, the work of the Movember Foundation has never been more important – and they have never needed your support more.

Although sepsis does not primarily affect males – it strikes women and men about equally – we encourage you to join the noble cause of Movember this year, by growing a mo to save a bro, moving 60km, hosting a mo-ment, getting involved on social media, and more.

Sepsis 2021: Rethinking Sepsis in Resource-Constrained Settings: The Viewpoint from Africa is happening virtually and for free this Thursday and Friday, October 28 and 29. If you haven’t registered yet, what are you waiting for?

The Sepsis 2021 Symposium is co-hosted by the International Sepsis Forum, the African Sepsis Alliance, and the Rwandan Emergency Care Association. Over two days, it will address the diagnosis, epidemiology, science, and clinical management of sepsis, taking into account both the situation in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) as well as the current COVID-19 situation.

This conference will be mostly virtual and focus on sepsis care worldwide, but especially care in LMICs.

It will also provide a unique opportunity to hear from and engage with international and African thought leaders from the fields of critical care, infectious diseases, internal medicine, and emergency medicine, who have extensive expertise in the clinical care, science, and investigation of sepsis and the host response, and in the design, implementation, and interpretation of clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of sepsis treatments. The current COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on sepsis will also be discussed.

Update October 26: The session is now available to rewatch on YouTube, embedded above.

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Original article:

The upcoming World Health Summit will devote one session to discussing global and national strategies to combat sepsis. Said session will take place on October 24 at 14:00h CEST directly on Zoom (Zoom link) and will be hosted by our very own Abdulelah Alhawsawi. Besides Flavia Machado and Konrad Reinhart – both members of our Executive Committee – it will feature Janet Diaz from the World Health Organization, Carolin Fleischmann-Struzek from the Jena University Hospital, as well as Jean-Marc Cavaillon from the Institut Pasteur.

This session will provide new insights on the role of the immune system in sepsis and the potential of novel immunomodulatory therapeutic approaches, as well as offering an update on the burden of sepsis and an overview on the effectiveness of quality improvement strategies for sepsis prevention and care at the national and healthcare facility level. It will outline the challenges to fight sepsis in resource-limited settings and the lessons learned from the current pandemic for the fight against infections and sepsis by other pathogens.

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About WHS

World Health Summit is one of the leading international forums for global health. Every October, WHS draws international experts from academia, politics, the private sector, and civil society to Berlin. During the three-day summit, stakeholders and decision-makers from 100 countries and every field in healthcare work together to find solutions to global health challenges and set the agenda for a healthier future.

This year, there will be over 300 speakers from 100 nations across 50 sessions. Digital participation is free and possible without prior registration.

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Disclaimer: The World Health Summit is organized at the Charité University Hospital, Europe's largest university hospital, which also hosts the Global Sepsis Alliance. The GSA was directly involved in planning the session described above. The GSA and its members are not receiving monetary compensation from the WHS.

Update Oct 13: The form is now closed, thanks for your submissions.

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We are extending the deadline to upload your events to be featured on the 2021 WSD Event Poster to October 13 - Wednesday next week. Please submit your events by then using the form on the World Sepsis Day website.

It has been 18 months since the COVID-19 pandemic ruptured our world. The pandemic remains a constant natural pressure that leads to important adaptations. One salient adaptation is the need to secure continuing medical education. That is why the conference of the European Shock Society will take place as a free web conference this year.

Our everyday difficulties impose the need to become better. Following this mantra, the ESS has decided to seize this opportunity and offer a completely revamped conference, fitting for this day and age and more attractive younger colleagues. Major changes are

• the inclusion of short slots of presentations by world leaders in the field

• the integration of basic, translational, and clinical research

• the widening to other societies including the sister Shock societies, the Global Sepsis Alliance and the European Sepsis Alliance but also to the European sepsis research consortium ImmunoSep

• the use of a web platform that allows interaction between attendees in private rooms in parallel

• the publication of the presentations as a supplement in the journal Shock

To sign up or view the full program, please visit the conference website.

We are looking for a

Team Assistant

to become our fifth team member. You will be working part-time (20h a week) at the World Sepsis Day Head Office at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany.

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About Us

The GSA is a non-profit charity organization with the mission to provide global leadership to reduce the worldwide burden of sepsis. The GSA is the initiator of World Sepsis Day on September 13 and World Sepsis Congress, a series of free online congresses bringing knowledge about sepsis to all parts of the world, among other initiatives.

The GSA works closely with its over 100 member organizations, patient advocacy groups, professional societies, healthcare authorities, and governments to implement changes on how sepsis is prioritized, diagnosed, and treated all around the world, as laid out in the WHO Resolution on Sepsis.

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Tasks

• You assist the team scheduling and attending meetings, drafting agendas and minutes, making travel arrangements, preparing documents, liaising with suppliers, and more, as needs arise

• You manage our online store, keep track of stock, prepare and ship orders

• You support individual projects and preparatory accounting

• You organize team events and think about new concepts and formats

• You are the “good soul” of the team and make sure everybody finds the best

  conditions

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Requirements

• You are a true organizational talent, proactive, and a person you can always rely on

• You have everything under control and keep a cool head even in stressful situations

• You can familiarize yourself with new tasks quickly and easily

• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills in English (German helpful, but not mandatory)

• You like to work independently and do not need constant instructions “from above”, but think proactively

• Experience in office management, project management, in the hospitality industry, or as an assistant is an advantage, but not a must. It is more important to us that you bring the right attitude and that you are a positive and organized person.

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We Offer

• Diversified, exciting challenge in the fast-growing healthcare sector

• Modern IT infrastructure and possibility to work from home

• Opportunity to help shape sustainable structures in this young international non-

  profit organization with flat hierarchies

• Opportunity to involve yourself in global projects, possibility to increase hours or to

  be promoted to project manager in the future

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If you can identify yourself with the above requirements, we look forward to receiving your application via our website. We ensure absolute discretion.

We are looking for a

Program Manager

to become our fourth team member. You will be working part-time (32h a week) at the World Sepsis Day Head Office at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany.

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About US

The GSA is a non-profit charity organization with the mission to provide global leadership to reduce the worldwide burden of sepsis. The GSA is the initiator of World Sepsis Day on September 13 and World Sepsis Congress, a series of free online congresses bringing knowledge about sepsis to all parts of the world, among other initiatives.

The GSA works closely with its over 100 member organizations, patient advocacy groups, professional societies, healthcare authorities, and governments to implement changes on how sepsis is prioritized, diagnosed, and treated all around the world, as laid out in the WHO Resolution on Sepsis.

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Tasks

• You develop, execute, and monitor programs worldwide – these could be educational, focusing on awareness and advocacy, and much more

• You develop and execute a holistic strategy for our programs, new and existing

• You closely work with our Executive Committee, HQ Team, member organizations, partners, and sponsors

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Requirements

• You have at least three years of experience in developing programs on any scale

• You are creative and are not afraid to think big

• You can familiarize yourself with new tasks and circumstances quickly and easily

• You are an organizational talent, proactive, and a person you can always rely on

• You have everything under control and keep a cool head even in stressful situations

• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills in English (German

  helpful, but not mandatory)

• You like to work independently and do not need constant instructions “from above”,

  but think proactively

• You have successfully completed a university degree in any relevant field

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We offer

• Diversified, exciting challenge in the fast-growing healthcare sector

• Modern IT infrastructure and possibility to work from home

• Opportunity to help shape sustainable structures in this young international non-

  profit organization with flat hierarchies

• Opportunity to involve yourself in global projects and have a positive impact on the

  world

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If you can identify yourself with the above requirements, we look forward to receiving your application via our website. We ensure absolute discretion.