Now’s the Time to be Sepsis Aware

September is Sepsis Awareness Month, and the Sepsis Alliance is using the occasion to call for everyone to learn the symptoms of sepsis. Someone dies of sepsis every two minutes in the United States, and the Sepsis Alliance calls it an “equal-opportunity killer” that can impact people of all ages and all levels of health.¹Despite that, only 34% of American adults have even heard of sepsis.¹

What Is Sepsis?

Sepsis can occur when an infection triggers a life-threatening chain reaction throughout your body. Signs and symptoms of sepsis include high heart rate, shortness of breath, extreme pain or discomfort, fever or shivering, sweaty or clammy skin, and confusion.

When watching for sepsis, the Sepsis Alliance says to remember the TIME: temperature, infection, mental decline, and extreme illness.

Key Sepsis Statistics

Sepsis is the leading cause of death in US hospitals.¹ Simply put, anyone who dies of an infection has died of sepsis. Here are some other key statistics about the impact of sepsis:

Sepsis affects nearly 49 million people worldwide each year.¹
3.4 million children die of sepsis each year globally, making it the top killer of children.¹
Sepsis represents the top cost of hospitalization in the US.¹
Inappropriate antimicrobial therapy for septic shock occurs in about 20% of patients and is associated with a fivefold reduction in survival.²

Sepsis and COVID-19

Any infection, including COVID-19, can lead to sepsis. The Global Sepsis Alliance notes that while the effects of COVID-19 on the respiratory system are well known, “virtually all other organ systems can be affected. This is consistent with a combination of direct viral invasion and sepsis.”³ In fact, according to the Global Sepsis Alliance, early studies have found evidence of liver injury, kidney failure, and heart damage among some severely ill COVID-19 patients.³

Learn more about the link between sepsis and COVID-19.

Combatting Sepsis

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For every hour of delay in initiation of effective antimicrobial treatment following onset of septic shock, patient survival declines 7.6%.² That’s why early identification and treatment of bloodstream infections are essential. Syndromic infectious disease testing can help healthcare providers get actionable answers faster. By simultaneously testing for 33 pathogens and 10 antimicrobial resistance genes in about an hour, the BIOFIRE^® Blood Culture Identification 2 (BCID2) Panel can help facilitate timely and effective treatment for bloodstream infections.

Explore BIOFIRE’s syndromic testing solutions for sepsis.

This September, Learn More About Sepsis

This year’s Sepsis Awareness Month campaign at SepsisAwarenessMonth.org includes useful information for patients and providers, stories from survivors, and ways to get involved.
Find out who is most at risk of sepsis and what the early warning signs are at CDC.gov/sepsis.
Learn how the BIOFIRE BCID2 Panel can impact patient management.

REFERENCES:

Sepsis Alliance. Sepsis Fact Sheet. Retrieved from: https://www.sepsis.org/education/resources/sepsis-information-guides/
Kumar A, et al. Chest. 2009 Nov;136(5):1237-48.
Global Sepsis Alliance. Update: Can COVID-19 Cause Sepsis? [Cited 2020 Aug 20] Retrieved from: https://www.global-sepsis-alliance.org/news/2020/4/7/update-can-covid-19-cause-sepsis-explaining-the-relationship-between-the-coronavirus-disease-and-sepsis-cvd-novel-coronavirus.