Rabat- As yesterday marked World Sepsis Day, mostly including young children or people from vulnerable or low-income countries, the World health organization published a tweet thread to urge global action against this serious yet neglected condition that “kills 11 million people a year” and which “anyone with an infection can develop.”
Compared to other continents, Africa is carrying disproportionately high numbers of sepsis, because the continent has a distinct lack of developmental research and awareness, indicated the WHO’s thread.
Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection due to one’s body’s immune system overreacting, the disease results in the body attacking its own tissues and organs. The disease is not contagious and can be very hard to spot, it is also commonly referred to as “blood poisoning.”
New campaign in Morocco
As part of this global day of awareness raising, The France Sepsis Association launched a campaign in Morocco to not only educate the general public about the disease but medical professionals too.
The new campaign is titled “hand in hand to defeat sepsis,” says Jamila Hedjal, the founder of the association and who tragically lost her son to sepsis.
The aim is to have discussions about the disease and ways of increasing prevention because the disease can be hard to detect, especially in newborns, and awareness of tell-tale signs could be life-saving.
Educational videos will be released about sepsis in Arabic and French, which have been curated by doctors and specialists on the disease.
Speaking with a Moroccan news outlet, Hedjal stated that she is aware that Morocco is prioritizing reforming the country’s healthcare and that she is using this campaign to build what she hopes will be a fruitful partnership with the reform’s top stakeholders.
“The disease generates, in fact, many serious comorbidities which influence the life expectancy of the patient, the expenditure of the health systems, not to mention avoidable deaths. Information and awareness, therefore, become an undeniable challenge in the fight against this little-known scourge,” she emphasized.
Africa and sepsis
Sepsis has gained a lot of attention over the past 10 years. As one in five deaths is due to sepsis, which accounts for 20% of the world’s deaths with such high mortality rates, many have asked why there still is not much research focused on sepsis in Africa.
A recent study by the Pan African Medical Journal found that Africa is lacking in “individual patient management to strategic planning at the health-system level.” As a result, the study concluded, the continent carries the highest “global burden of sepsis.”
Since an overwhelming 85% of sepsis cases come from low-income countries, Africa has in recent years been the epicenter of the disease. The most at-risk groups are newborns, elderly people, and pregnant women, making the disease a particularly acute public health challenge.
Africa faces resource limitations, making it harder to identify and treat the disease before it is too late. Sepsis is referred to as “the most important preventable cause of death worldwide,” from the analysis of the global burden of the disease.
The study by the Pan African Medical Journal argued that the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recurring cases of Ebola in some African countries proceed to have a diminishing impact on the resources and funding allocated to the disease. As such, it concluded that the continent is in dire need of devising an action plan for the treatment of all critically ill sepsis patients.
African Sepsis Alliance, an organization that was founded in 2016, is fighting for better care for the victims of the disease in Africa.
In a recent statement, the organization echoed both the study’s warnings and the belief that more action from African governments and other stakeholders can help reverse the grim trends.
“Our message is simple: sepsis is the most important cause of severe illness in Africa and must be prioritized in order to save lives and reduce suffering,” the organization said. It stressed, however, that by investing more efforts in awareness raising campaigns, research, care, and funding in Africa, “we can save millions of lives every year.”
