WHO and WHA – Recognizing Sepsis as a Global Health Priority: summary of the summary

1. 6 million deaths/year, most of which are preventable.
2. Sepsis =
   1. syndromic response to infection and the final common pathway to death from most infectious diseases.
   2. most vital indication for the responsible use of effective antimicrobials for human health.
3. Urgent need to:
   1. implement and promote measures for prevention; childbirth, surgery, sanitation, nutrition, clean water.
   2. implement national immunization programmes urgently.
   3. improve training of health care professionals and laypeople – time-critical action
   4. promote research (by UN Member States )
   5. raise and encourage public awareness – use the term ‘sepsis’ more often! World sepsis day = September 13th.
   6. develop integrated approaches to the prevention and clinical management of sepsis (and survivor care)
   7. apply and improve the ICD system to establish the prevalence, and development of epidemiologic surveillance systems.

The Global Sepsis Alliance identifies key priorities as:

1. achieving adequate documentation of sepsis in the global and national disease statistics and reports,
2. encourage the development of national action plans for sepsis,
3. fostering quality improvement initiatives on all levels of care and for all health care settings
4. collaborating with governmental and nongovernmental institutions and bodies that arefocused on strengthening health systems and improving patient safety.