Noting the lack of awareness regarding sepsis, particularly affecting newborns and pregnant women, doctors and health experts have concurred that the growing incidence of this potentially life-threatening condition may kill more people by 2050 than cancer and heart attacks.
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Doctors of capital have warned that on the basis of data of increasing incidence of sepsis, Sepsis will kill more people than cancer or heart attack by 2050 – it is going to be the biggest killer.
Noting the lack of awareness regarding sepsis, particularly affecting newborns and pregnant women, doctors and health experts have concurred that the growing incidence of this potentially life-threatening condition may kill more people by 2050 than cancer and heart attacks.
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Gathered at the second Sepsis Summit India 2021, they emphasized the need for awareness and early diagnosis as well as controlling the rampant use of antibiotics.
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“Sepsis has not been given the recognition it deserves and this is very much on the backburner from the policy point of view. We need to have SOPs and we need to flag sepsis cases in researches by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), continuing medical education (CME), and it should be taken up on priority by policymakers,” said Mr. Lov Verma, former Union Secretary of Health, Government of India.
“Also, in developing countries like India, multidrug resistance due to gross overuse of antibiotics is probably causing higher mortality. Despite advancements in medicine, tertiary care hospitals see 50-60 percent of patients get sepsis and septic shock. Awareness and early diagnosis are needed, and unnecessary antibiotic therapy should be avoided,” said Dr. Yatin Mehta, Chairman, Institute of Critical Care and Anaesthesiology, Medanta – The Medicity, Gurgaon.
Mr. Sanjiv Navangul, Managing Director & CEO, Bharat Serums & Vaccines Limited, said, “Sepsis is more of a body response than just infection. On behalf of the industry, we would like to tell policymakers that sepsis must be managed separately and not be clubbed with infection management. On the R&D front, we need to find out how we can ensure that inflammation as a base cause can be managed better for sepsis.”
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