On World Sepsis Day 2023 join the drive to reinvigorate global action on sepsis.
Sepsis afflicts 30 million patients worldwide each year, and around half of these patients die from sepsis-related causes. Early recognition and treatment by perioperative specialists are key for reducing sepsis mortality.
Monitoring, resuscitation and facilitating timely source control through procedural interventions is vital in the reduction of mortality from sepsis. Septic shock, when present, demands early and aggressive resuscitation at the same time as source control. Therefore, good awareness of sepsis recognition and management is vital for the anaesthesia provider.
In recent years, awareness of sepsis through initiatives like World Sepsis Day has increased significantly. In 2022, G7 health ministers committed to ‘intensify efforts to strengthen early detection, diagnosis and therapy of sepsis’ and ensure ‘syngery with antimicrobial stewardship and IPC programmes’ through national educational campaigns.
WHO member states acknowledged the importance of combating sepsis by drafting and adopting WHA Resolution 70.7 ‘Improving the Prevention, Diagnosis and Clinical Management of Sepsis‘.
In spite of these efforts, sepsis continues to be under-prioritised by ministries of health across the globe. To tackle this on 12 September, delegates and supporting organisations of the 2023 Central World Sepsis Day Event convened in Berlin with the aim to:
- Underpin the urgent need for implementation of WHO demands at national and international levels.
- Demonstrate what health system-strengthening and health literacy interventions for sepsis prevention and early detection in civil society have contributed to reducing the number of preventable deaths from sepsis.
- To demonstrate what contribution innovations in the field of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infections and sepsis can make to our goal of ‘zero preventable deaths from sepsis’.
On 12 September, the WFSA signed the Berlin Declaration on Sepsis to support the enforcement of WHA resolution 70.7 and reinvigorate global action on sepsis.
Do your part by signing and sharing the World Sepsis Declaration with your colleagues, families and friends this World Sepsis Day, 13 September 2023.
