World Sepsis Day: Join us

World Sepsis Day is 13 SeptemberSepsis is the leading killer of children and mothers worldwide, but this is not reflected in estimates of global mortality.For instance, the Global Burden of Disease study, a systematic analysis of global and regional mortality report “sepsis and infectious disorders of the newborn” representing 17% of neonatal deaths; although 32% of neonatal deaths due to infections but are not identified as death due to sepsis.The term “sepsis” is also excluded in the under 5 childhood deaths although 61% of deaths are due to infectious causes of which malaria (20.8%), diarrheal diseases (11.9%) and lower respiratory infections (12.4%) are the most common. Sepsis has clinical, social, economic and political origins and implications as highlighted by the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Care for sepsis especially in the developing world is plagued by delays in recognition, lack of basic care  and personal protective procedures, non availability of transport systems as well as many stops and long waiting time which all leads to lack of faith in the health care system.    In many parts of the developing world there are also low emphasis on preventative services, staff shortages and inequity of health care and poorly regulated managed health care sectors. Thus the adoption of a broader concept to highlight the burden and far reaching implications of sepsis is paramount for advocacy for resources to support innovative programs. This was the impetus for the creation of the World Sepsis Declaration and subsequently World Sepsis Day.The intent of World Sepsis Day was two-fold:

• First, to raise awareness of sepsis among all stakeholders including members of the public and policy makers
• Second, to encourage capacity building and quality improvement initiatives for sepsis recognition and management by hospitals and health care providers toward delivering the goals set out in the World Sepsis Declaration.

These goals are:

1. Reducing sepsis incidence through prevention by at least 20 percent
2. Improving survival for children and adults in all countries
3.  Raising public and professional awareness and understanding of sepsis
4. Ensuring improved access to adequate rehabilitation services
5. Creating and maintaining sepsis incidence and outcomes databases.

Join with us and take actionYou can take action and help to increase the awareness and participate in education about sepsis. You can also support the World Sepsis Declaration by registering on the World Sepsis Day website and speak out about sepsis and support our request to get sepsis on the agenda of the United Nations. You can also help by educating the public about sepsis prevention measures and long term outcomes, educating administrators about the issues of sepsis in your own organization, participating in many events and seminars about sepsis that are gaining ground for medical professions in many parts of the world. Engage government agencies to enable them to recognize sepsis as a national health topic and join in the global movie event which will focus on collecting video material to create a compelling informative movie about World Sepsis Day 2014. You can also stay connected on Twitter and Facebook. We would appreciate if you inform us of your activities and help make World Sepsis Day a success. The author is Niranjan Kissoon, MBBS, FRCP(C), FAAP, FCCM, FACPE, UBC & BC Children’s Hospital Professor in Critical Care – Global Child Health at the University of British Columbia in Canada