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Life-threatening sepsis Infections in children are common in clinics
Blood poisoning quickly becomes life-threatening and is one of the most common causes of death in infants. Many of these infections occur in the hospital, according to a recent study at Swiss children's hospitals.
In the national sepsis study, Swiss scientists investigated the occurrence of blood poisoning in children. For the first time, the researchers were able to show "which children get sick, which germs they get sick with, how severe the infections are and what the consequences are", according to the Bern University Hospital. The study was published in the journal "The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health." released.
Blood poisoning is one of the leading causes of death in children. Not infrequently, an infection during hospital stays, so the result of a recent Swiss study. (Image: Zerbor / fotolia.com) Millions of children die every year from blood poisoning
Blood poisoning (sepsis) is a serious bacterial infection that, if left untreated, can quickly lead to the failure of vital organs and death, explain the Swiss physicians. Several million children die each year, the experts say. On average, every day in Switzerland, a child becomes ill with the life-threatening infection. It was only in May 2017 that the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva passed a resolution obliging the signatory countries to improve sepsis prevention.
Sepsis cases in Switzerland examined
In the current study, the ten largest children's hospitals in Switzerland over a period of four years jointly investigated the causes and effects of blood poisoning in children. According to the researchers, more than 1,200 children in Switzerland contracted sepsis during the study period. On the one hand, previously healthy children were affected by blood poisoning - with some very severe cases; on the other hand, one third of all cases of sepsis are caused by bacteria, with which the children were infected during hospital stays. med. Philipp Agyeman, Senior Physician at the Department of Paediatrics at the Inselspital Bern.
Many blood poisoning preventable by better prevention?
The physicians particularly frequently observed clinical infections and subsequent sepsis in preterm infants, children under chemotherapy and severely ill children hospitalized in an intensive care unit. Of the affected children, seven percent died in spite of the best possible medical care. Many of the sepsis cases would probably have been preventable through better prevention, the researchers report, looking at the experiences of other countries. "Especially in premature babies or newborns or in children with an underlying disease, this must be stated here", emphasizes Professor Dr. med. Christoph Berger, Co-Head of Infectiology and Head of Hospital Hygiene at the Children's Hospital Zurich.
Analysis of genetic material
A significantly increased risk of hospital infection and thus the sepsis emergence is for example in frequent hospital stays or in an inserted venous catheter before, the scientists report. However, the current study was not only devoted to the routes of infection, but also to the causes of an increased sepsis risk. In the course of the study, a national database with blood samples for pediatric sepsis was set up and a genetic analysis of the genomes of the affected children enables us to identify immunodeficiencies that make children particularly susceptible to sepsis, explains study leader Professor Dr. med. med. Luregn Schlapbach from the Inselspital Bern.
According to information from the University Hospital Bern, EPFL Lausanne will now be followed by further investigations into the genetic causes that favor sepsis in children. Thus, the prevention and treatment of sepsis in the future can be significantly improved, the researchers hope. (Fp)