Healthcare Global
One of the most devastating diseases in the world – Sepsis – is responsible for approximately 10,000 deaths a day, but at the same time, it is one of the least recognised illnesses out there.
This month, Healthcare Global spoke to Dr Konrad Reinhart, the Director and Chairman of the Global Sepsis Alliance, to find out what needs to be done to tackle Sepsis and reduce the impact it has across the globe.
Reinhart believes that raising awareness of Sepsis and getting people to recognise its symptoms is the key.
“Sepsis can be prevented,” he says. “In the developing world it can be prevented by having better sanitation and hygiene processes, improved nutrition, clean water and promoting vaccinations in children.
“But the main way it can be prevented is if it is recognised early and the patient receives adequate measures of treatment. Treatments like antimicrobials and intravenous fluids must be initiated when the first signs of organ dysfunction appear. If they are given in the first few hours the survival rate may be up to 80 percent, but studies suggest with each hour of delay the mortality rate increases by five to eight percent.”
Elsewhere in the May issue of Healthcare Global, we’ve investigated the technological innovations in reconstructive surgery, how healthcare organisation can overcome the skills gap in the industry and looked how medical trailers are transforming patient care in the UK.
You can read all these stories and more at www.healthcareglobal.com or by flicking through the Healthcare Global digital magazine.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
