Sepsis Too many blood poisoning victims

Up to 20,000 people could be saved from sepsis death: far too many blood poisoning victims in Germany

09/08/2013

Experts are worried about the high number of blood poisoning victims in Germany. According to leading physicians, 15,000 to 20,000 people could be saved from death by sepsis each year if prevention, diagnosis, and therapy followed medical guidelines.

Up to 20,000 victims too much
In Germany, around 60,000 people die annually of sepsis, colloquially referred to as blood poisoning. It is an inflammatory reaction to bacteria and other pathogens. According to a paper available to the news magazine FOCUS, leading infectious diseases specialists say there may be 15,000 to 20,000 fewer victims if prevention, diagnosis and therapy follow medical guidelines.

Much of the blame lies in the medical system
Konrad Reinhart, head of the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy in Jena and one of the authors of the memorandum told the magazine: „The number of sepsis cases in the industrialized countries increases year by year by seven to eight percent.“ The aging of society is only one of the reasons. In the medical system is a big part of the blame: „Too few people from the risk groups are vaccinated against dangerous pathogens such as pneumococci. Too often doctors pay attention to the first symptoms of an inflammatory reaction. And finally, shortcomings in hospital hygiene compound the problem“, so Reinhart.

Dead of harmless injury
On Monday, the paper will be at the conference „Sepsis Summit Berlin“ Reinharts wish to have a similar effect as an initiative in the US state of New York. There, in April 2012, a father whose son had died after a harmless sports injury to Sepsis, so intensely recruited to tighten the rules that eventually the local governor Andrew Cuomo actually the „Rory's Regulations“ issued. It states, among other things, that a patient must receive antibiotics no later than one hour after a sepsis diagnosis.

Sepsis is life threatening
The main symptom of sepsis is high fever, which rapidly increases and decreases to normal levels within 24 hours, from where it rises again, and so on. ... With blood poisoning, the person feels seriously ill, with rapid worsening of the general condition. The skin is cold, pale gray to bluish and it can cause skin bleeding and other skin symptoms. Sepsis is life-threatening and requires intensive care treatment as soon as possible. After the diagnosis, which is made by examining a blood culture to determine pathogens, the therapy consists of a high dose of antibiotics, shock treatment and treatment of the coagulation disorder. In addition, infusions to compensate for fluid loss are given and optionally the sepsis removed surgically. (Ad)

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