Worldwide, nearly 50 million septic states or sepsis have been recorded. They cause 20% of deaths worldwide. And France is not spared, with around 60,000 deaths each year. September 13 is World Sepsis Day. It is an opportunity to raise public awareness of this major public health issue.
Infection and sepsis
Known and described for several centuries, sepsis or sepsis is defined since 2016, as “a life-threatening organ dysfunction resulting from a dysregulated host response to infection, the most severe form of which is septic shock”. Sepsis therefore corresponds to the critical state following an infection, and involving the vital prognosis of the patient.
All pathogens (bacteria, viruses, parasites) can theoretically cause sepsis. However, most often septic shock is associated with bacterial infections, poorly or not controlled by antibiotic treatments. Even today, despite diagnostic and therapeutic progress, mortality from sepsis in industrialized countries is still around 50%. And among patients who survive sepsis, a quarter of them have lasting sequelae several months following infection.
Sepsis and antibiotic resistance
Historically, before the development of antibiotics, sepsis might affect all ages of life and all categories of people. Nowadays, epidemiological data highlight population categories more exposed to this risk, in particular:
- In developed countries, the extreme ages of life, newborns and the elderly, especially hospitalized elderly;
- In developing countries, women just following childbirth (if infected at the time of birth) and children between 0 and 5 years old. Worldwide, half of sepsis cases are in children.
Experts are worried a possible doubling of sepsis cases over the next fifty yearsinvolving the conjunction of two phenomena:
- The ageing of the population : half of septic shocks occur following a nosocomial infection, ie contracted during care. The older the population, the more care it requires and therefore the greater the risk of contracting a nosocomial infection.
- The development of antibiotic resistance: the misuse of antibiotics in human health and the intensive use of antibiotics in animal health favor the development of resistance to antibiotics. Some bacterial infections can no longer be controlled and treated with available antibiotics and progress to sepsis.
world sepsis day
As many deaths as myocardial infarction!
World Sepsis Day is an opportunity to remind as many people as possible that sepsis affects all countries in the world, with very high mortality despite therapeutic progress. The development of new antibiotics and above all a controlled and reasoned use of existing antibiotics are essential to maintain effective means of combating potentially invasive bacterial infections. Vaccination is also a means of combating certain infections that cause sepsis.
On the research side, scientists are trying to develop specific treatments once morest sepsis. These treatments would intervene when the immune system gets carried away following an infection. This is the case, for example, of the cytokine storm caused by infection with SARS-Cov2. A better understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms is essential for:
- enable earlier diagnosis (every hour counts);
- improve the vital prognosis of the patient (specific drugs are necessary).
Yet less publicized, sepsis causes as many deaths in industrialized countries asmyocardial infarction.
Estelle B., Doctor of Pharmacy
Sources
– World Sepsis Day. pasteur.fr. Accessed September 12, 2022.
