2024-01-06 11:34:00
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A person in Germany dies of blood poisoning around every six minutes. Nevertheless, the treacherous disease, known in technical language as sepsis, is usually underestimated and often recognized far too late.
She is a killer and often goes unrecognized: The Bloodstream infection, as doctors also call them. It is the third most common cause of death, with 85,000 to 100,000 deaths per year! Survivors often have to contend with dramatic subsequent damage. What is particularly tragic is the fact that a large proportion of the deaths could have been avoided!
“Sepsis can be clinically like a chameleon and show a wide variety of symptoms”
Emergency physician Dr. med. Weiglein Tobias sounds the alarm: “Sepsis is often only recognized very late.” © Andreas Steeger/LMU-Klinikum
How does sepsis manage to kill so many victims? “It often goes undiagnosed or is recognized very late. “This is also because clinically it can be like a chameleon and manifest itself with a wide variety of symptoms,” says Dr. Tobias Weiglein, senior physician in the central emergency room at the Großhadern University Hospital. There he is responsible for patients who are admitted with internal complaints, from heart attacks to abdominal pain and infections. “We in primary care are often surprised at how often patients with sepsis are among the emergency room patients who we would never have thought of because of their initial symptoms,” says the internist. “Especially in older patients, it is often the case that they are admitted with the suspicion of a stroke, but in reality they have sepsis,” he continues.
Risk factors include diabetes, heart failure or chronic lung disease
Blood poisoning comes in different degrees of severity. Most of the time, the newly admitted patients do not yet have sepsis that has spread to the entire bloodstream, but rather a localized infection. “But certain secondary illnesses and risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease or heart failure can mean that it quickly becomes very dangerous. And then a limited infection can develop into a bloodstream infection,” explains the doctor. It is therefore important to monitor patients closely. Warning signs of sepsis can in particular be: “For example, patients develop personality changes, blood pressure or pulse change significantly, a high fever occurs, people become cold sweats, the respiratory rate increases sharply or people suddenly feel unusually ill.”
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Most triggers are infections in your own body, such as inflammation in the lungs or urinary tract
Blood poisoning is always caused by an infection with pathogens. It most often develops from an infection inside the body – for example pneumonia, intestinal inflammation or a urinary tract infection. But it can also arise from wounds or injuries.
The triggers are usually bacteria, less often fungi or viruses. If germs enter the blood, the body can react with an excessive and dysregulated immune response, explains Dr. Weiglein. This massive immune system response can be triggered by toxins that the bacteria secrete or by the bacteria themselves.
This is how the life-threatening overreaction of the immune system occurs:
If the immune system then overreacts significantly, this leads to fluid leakage into the tissue throughout the body and the formation of edema. This causes the patient to have problems with their blood pressure. This can, for example, drop dramatically as a result. As a result, the body is no longer supplied with enough oxygen. This then leads to the dreaded septic shock. If the vital organs are no longer sufficiently supplied with oxygen, they can be damaged – for example the brain, but also the liver and kidneys, the heart or the lungs. Important to know: If patients with septic shock do not immediately receive the antibiotic that fights the bacteria, their chance of survival decreases drastically with every hour, warns Dr. Weiglein.
In the case of Peter B. (65), it was very close – his wife calling for help saved his life. In the accompanying article you will also find a checklist of risk factors and explanations of how you can recognize blood poisoning and save lives.
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The tragic case of Norbert Blüm: “Calamity struck like a thief in the night”
The case of former Labor and Social Affairs Minister Norbert Blüm clearly shows how dangerous sepsis is. In March 2020, he announced that he had fallen into a coma due to sepsis and was then paralyzed from the shoulders down. “Like a thief in the night, disaster broke into my life in the form of an insidious blood poisoning,” Blüm wrote in the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” at the time. The 84-year-old died just a few weeks later.
Former Labor Minister Norbert Blüm suffered severe sepsis. © dpa/Rolf Vennenbernd
This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication. It in no way replaces a visit to the doctor. Unfortunately, our editorial team cannot answer individual questions about medical conditions.
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