Silent Killer Sepsis Worries Doctors, Calls for Radical Treatment Strategies

Although no specific cure for the condition exists, Spesis can often be treated effectively with intensive medical care, if identified early.

Leading doctors have warned unless the sepsis disease treatment does not have a new strategy, deaths will not be curbed.

They stated that medical and public recognition of sepsis, thought to contribute to between a third and a half of all hospital deaths, must improve if the numbers of deaths from this common and potentially life-threatening condition are to fall.

Patients With Lingering Sepsis Face Re-Emergence of Dormant Viruses
Late stage sepsis, which is the leading cause of death in hospitals, may be linked to longer episodes of infection with reactivation of otherwise-dormant viruses in the body, a new study has found

Professor Jonathan Cohen and colleagues outlined the current state of research into this little-understood condition, and highlight priority areas for future investigation.

Sepsis, sometimes misleadingly called "blood poisoning," is a common condition whereby an infection triggers an extreme immune response, resulting in widespread inflammation, blood clotting, and swelling. Among the early (but not universal) symptoms of sepsis are high temperature and fast breathing; if left untreated, it frequently leads to organ failure and death.

Although no specific cure for the condition exists, it can often be treated effectively with intensive medical care including antibiotics and intravenous fluid, if identified early enough.

Landes Bioscience Releases Special Focus Issue on Sepsis
Landes Bioscience (Austin, TX USA) has released a special issue on sepsis.

In low-income and middle-income countries, where most sepsis cases occur outside hospital, there are virtually no data on the condition’s incidence, and the number of people killed by sepsis was likely to far exceed the already high rates in more wealthy countries.

Moreover, rising rates of antibiotic resistance globally mean that even if mortality rates from sepsis are improving in some high-income countries, there was no room for complacency.

Sepsis Contributes to Half of All Hospital Deaths in US
A study presented at the American Thoracic Society's annual conference suggests that although it's present in only a tenth of all patients who are admitted to the hospital,

In addition to the high fatality rate from sepsis, survivors are at an increased risk of long-term chronic illness and mental or physical impairment, although research into the long-term consequences of surviving sepsis is relatively scarce, so doctors have little evidence available on which to base long-term care plans for these patients.

The Commission outlines a roadmap for future research into sepsis, highlighting a number of critical factors that need to change in the field if treatment and diagnosis of sepsis was to improve.

Global Review of Guidelines for Diagnosis of Sepsis Required
Around 110,000 patients were identified with possible sepsis; out of which more than 13,000 patients did not meet the criteria used to diagnose sepsis.

Recommendations include prioritizing research into biomarkers for sepsis, which would allow quicker diagnosis; better education of medical staff and improving public awareness to ensure earlier recognition; rethinking clinical trial design; recognizing that sepsis affects different patients differently and using the power of modern genetics to develop targeted treatments ("personalized medicine"); and, after dozens of failed trials in recent decades, ensuring that universities and drug companies do not abandon research into new drug treatments.

The study is published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Source-Medindia