On 24 September, as part of the 80th United Nations General Assembly, the GSA convened a high-level parallel side event titled “Sepsis and NCDs – A Hidden Link in Global Health” to highlight the overlooked intersection between infectious and chronic diseases and to call for political leadership and coordinated global action.

Opening the event, Ciaran Staunton, Founder of END SEPSIS – The Legacy of Rory Staunton and member of the GSA Board, welcomed delegates and emphasized that “most sepsis deaths are preventable” and that “sepsis remains the largest killer of children worldwide.”

Hon. Dr. Mariam Jashi, CEO of the Global Sepsis Alliance, former Chair of the Parliamentary Health Committee and Deputy Minister of Health of Georgia, underscored the urgency of implementing the 2030 Global Agenda for Sepsis, launched last year in the German Parliament. “By implementing this strategy, we can save two million lives every year,” she said, adding that “sepsis deserves to be at the center of the global political agenda and become the next success story in global health.”

In a video address, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, reaffirmed WHO’s commitment to strengthening sepsis prevention and care: “WHO is working with countries to reduce the impact of sepsis through guidelines on infection prevention, bloodstream infection control, and new clinical management tools. Nobody should die while seeking care.”

H.E. Dr. Hanan Al Kuwari, Advisor to the Prime Minister for Public Health Affairs and former Minister of Public Health of Qatar, shared her country’s experience, describing Qatar’s system-wide approach that cut sepsis mortality by 50%: “Leadership matters. Integration works. Data drives improvement,” she said. “Sepsis prevention and management must be embedded within NCD programs and health-system strengthening efforts.”

Representing the Government of Georgia, H.E. Mikheil Sarjveladze, Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs, emphasized the bidirectional link between sepsis and chronic conditions: “We cannot reduce premature mortality from NCDs without addressing sepsis,” he stated, reaffirming Georgia’s commitment to “integrating sepsis prevention, early detection, and treatment into our broader NCD strategies and universal health coverage reforms.”

Hon. Alan Donnelly, Chair and Founder of the G20 & G7 Health and Development Partnership, and Guilherme Duarte, Executive Director of the UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health stressed the need for stronger political will and parliamentary engagement to ensure sepsis is recognized as a cross-cutting global health and development priority.

Prof. Niranjan ‘Tex’ Kissoon, President of the GSA, reminded participants of the progress since the 2017 WHA Resolution on Sepsis, noting that “the movement has grown from a few advocates to a global coalition driving measurable change.”

The event also featured powerful contributions from global health experts and advocates, including:

Prof. Christopher J. L. Murray, Founding Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), who presented updated Global Burden of Disease estimates on sepsis and its connection with AMR and NCDs. the IHME estimates report more than 21 million of sepsis cases worldwide, which represent 31.5% of total deaths.

Dr. Eleanor Nwadinobi, President of the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA), who highlighted the gender dimension: “Women suffer disproportionately from sepsis – and yet women-led health innovations receive less than 10% of venture funding. We must move from rhetoric to action.”

Dr. Connie Newman, MWIA Vice President, who called for “gender-sensitive approaches to sepsis care and research.”

Mariah McKimbrough, sepsis survivor and Executive Director of the German Sepsis Foundation (Sepsis Stiftung), who shared her personal journey through 60 surgeries and two transplants: “Our mission must go beyond prevention. We must invest in survivor care and rehabilitation so no one is left behind.”

Jacqueline Duda, journalist and sepsis survivor, who reminded the audience that “awareness begins with stories – and survivors are the storytellers who bring sepsis out of the shadows.”

In her closing remarks, Dr. Jashi thanked participants and the event’s partners and called for broader collaboration: “Every three seconds, a person dies from sepsis. Together, we can change this. By integrating sepsis into NCD and UHC frameworks, we can save millions of lives and make sepsis the next global health success story.”

As friends and partners in the global fight against sepsis, we are pleased to share information about the 9th National Forum on Sepsis, which will be held virtually on November 6, 2025.

This year’s Forum brings together leaders in medicine, policy, innovation, and patient advocacy for a dynamic discussion on how emerging practices and technologies are reshaping sepsis care. The program is designed for physicians, nurses, sepsis coordinators, hospital innovation and patient quality officers, and other professionals working across hospital and outpatient settings. Free continuing education credits will be available for both nurses and physicians.

Through roundtable discussions and expert presentations, attendees will gain strategic insights and practical tools to navigate the evolving landscape of sepsis policy and practice, and ultimately help save more lives.

Key speakers include:

• Derek Angus, MD, Chair, Department of Critical Care Medicine, UPMC & University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

• Akin Demehin, Vice President, Quality and Safety Policy, American Hospital Association

• Jeremy Faust, MD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School

• Kristen Panthagani, MD, Yale Emergency Scholar & Founder, You Can Know Things

• Ray Dantes, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine & Physician Lead, EHC Sepsis Program, Emory University School of Medicine

• Rachael Spooner, Vice President, Center for Virtual Health, Northwell Health

• Nirav Shah, MD, Senior Scholar, Stanford University & Founder, Qualified Health

• Suchi Saria, MD, Founder, Bayesian Health

• Mark Sands, MD, SVP, Clinical Transformation & Improvement & Associate CMO, Northwell Health

We are pleased to share that Prof. Niranjan “Tex” Kissoon, President of the Global Sepsis Alliance (GSA), will receive an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies (UWI) during the graduation ceremonies held 23 to 25 October 2025 at the St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad.

Prof. Kissoon serves as a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and as an Investigator at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR). At BCCHR, he is also an Investigator with the Institute for Global Health (IGH). His work focuses on improving the recognition, prevention, and treatment of sepsis worldwide.

As President of the Global Sepsis Alliance, Prof. Kissoon was re-elected for the 2025 to 2028 term, continuing to lead international efforts to make sepsis a global health priority.

In reflecting on the honor, Prof. Kissoon said:

“I have so many people to thank for this journey. There are too many to count who have helped me get to where I am today. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but if anything, my journey and work show that it really takes the whole globe.”

— Prof. Niranjan 'Tex' Kissoon, President, Global Sepsis Alliance

On September 15, the GSA team met their passionate supporters, old and new stakeholders in Geneva, all gathered for the symposium “5 Facts × 5 Actions on Sepsis”. This powerful event, part of the 2025 World Sepsis Day campaign bearing the same name, stood not merely as another conference, but as a symbolic milestone, a powerful collective vow to make sepsis prevention and care a global health priority.

Dr. Mariam Jashi, CEO of the GSA, opened the gathering with gratitude for the continued support of Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, who sent a heartfelt video address. He highlighted that half of all 50 million global sepsis cases occur in babies and children and that most deaths are preventable through infection control, early diagnosis, and timely treatment. “Nobody,” he said, “should die while seeking care.”

Dr. Yvan J-F. Hutin, Director, AMR Surveillance, Prevention & Control, at WHO, reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to integrating sepsis response into universal health coverage and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) strategies. His call for systemic integration underscored the day’s central message: sepsis is not a side issue, but rather a test of how health systems function.

Prof. Konrad Reinhart, Founding President of the Global Sepsis Alliance and President of the Sepsis Stiftung, citing data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, revealed that more than 21 million people die from sepsis each year, with numbers having doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic due to viral sepsis. “Sepsis can strike anyone,” he warned, “but it disproportionately affects the poorest, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.” Tracing the historical fight against sepsis, he recalled how mortality has dropped thanks to vaccines, sanitation, and antibiotics, only to rise again even in HICs. “It’s not about resources,” he emphasized, “it’s about how health systems are organized.”

Reinhart compared data from Australia, Germany, and Switzerland, showing wide variation. He ended with both urgency and hope: “We already have the tools to prevent millions of deaths. What we need now is political will. Sepsis must be treated not only as a clinical issue but as a matter of global health justice.”

Prof. Niranjan ‘Tex’ Kissoon, President of the Global Sepsis Alliance, delivered a rousing message: “Sepsis is a global health threat hiding in plain sight, but we are not powerless.” He called for unity across sectors, policymakers, clinicians, survivors, and citizens, to turn awareness into action.

Prof. Evangelos Giamarellos-Bourboulis, Chair of the European Sepsis Alliance, shared sobering European data showing that many hospitals still lack standardized screening or management protocols. Yet, he also stressed that timely antibiotics and early recognition can save lives, as every hour of delay increases mortality risk.

Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite, founder of the UNITE Parliamentarians Network, reminded delegates that sepsis is now entering the political agenda thanks to relentless advocacy. Legislators, he said, “must use every tool, policy, budget, and voice, to ensure national sepsis plans become law.”

Dr. Jashi reminded everyone that behind numbers there are faces. The face of the Geneva event belonged to Elia Epifanio, a bright 14-year-old Swiss go-kart racer, who died from septic shock after a late diagnosis. The grief of his parents, Jennifer and Daniel, became activism through their foundation, Trofeo Elia Epifanio.

Mariam Jashi, Jennifer and Daniel Epifanio, Nora Lüthi, and Konrad Reinhart

Jennifer’s speech was the day’s emotional core. She recounted how her healthy son deteriorated rapidly from infection to sepsis, undiagnosed until it was too late. Her message was simple and urgent: “Everyone should know the symptoms of sepsis.” Her courage turned personal loss into public awareness, reminding attendees why the mission matters.

Dr. Jashi responded with deep respect: “Each of the 11 million deaths from sepsis every year has a human face. Elia is that face today.”

The panel discussion, moderated by Katherine Urbáez, Founder and Executive Director of the Health Diplomacy Alliance, sought to unpack the five core facts about sepsis and define concrete strategies for placing it firmly on the global health agenda. Katherine highlighted that addressing sepsis is central to its cross-cutting agenda, given the high burden of disease and the need to mobilize both awareness and political funding. The experts proposed solutions ranging from policy integration to grassroots digital advocacy.

Dr. Teri Reynolds, Unit Head of the Department Performance and Financing and Delivery at WHO, focused on translating global sepsis advocacy into meaningful action at the community level, emphasizing that the alarming global death toll must be contextualized within the reality of individual communities. She stressed the necessity of integrating sepsis into existing policy mechanisms. Dr. Reynolds illustrated WHO’s tools helping countries integrate sepsis into basic healthcare services and inform decision-making. Furthermore, Dr. Reynolds noted the importance of the WHO's education initiatives, such as basic emergency and critical care courses, and providing simple, scalable process tools to improve outcomes without demanding additional costs.

Katherine Urbáez, Teri Reynolds, Cristoph Benn, Nora Lüthi, and Josué Laos

Addressing the underfunding of sepsis, Dr. Christoph Benn, Director for Global Health Diplomacy at the Joep Lange Institute, explored how to mobilize political commitment and financial resources. He suggested that politicians respond primarily to two factors: demonstrating urgency through the scale of the emergency, and presenting a "fairly simple solution to a complex problem". The primary challenge for the global sepsis fight, he argued, is developing a strong "investment case" and translating the problem into "communicable interventions". Dr. Benn strongly advocated for integration over establishing a separate fund, recommending leveraging existing funding streams, like the Global Fund or the World Bank, for strengthening UHC and overall health systems.

Dr. Nora Lüthi, Medical Program Manager, shared the practical insights from the Swiss Sepsis Program, which launched a National Action Plan (NAP) after recognizing a national deficit in standards, coordinated strategy, and quality programs before 2022. The NAP was enabled by the opportunity provided by a federal quality commission committing to five years of funding. However, she highlighted ongoing challenges, including the need for simple, multilingual messaging within a decentralized Swiss system. A key difficulty identified was the lack of a legal mandate for hospitals to adopt standards, which impacts the long-term program sustainability. Dr. Lüthi concluded that international cooperation and learning from the experiences of other countries is "pivotal".

Public health student Josué Laos defined the youth involvement as moving beyond mere representation to taking action in health and political spheres. He stressed that the current generation is keenly aware of the sepsis burden. Laos advocated for harnessing digital platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, noting that youth are creative, highly connected, and capable of moving masses of people. He argued that bringing the voice of families and survivors provides the human context to the data, which is crucial in a saturated information environment. Laos emphasized the youth's role as "conductors of information," bridging communication gaps and translating the message to their peers, making a youth-led involvement "very key" to the sepsis agenda.

Dr. Jashi outlined the facts at the base of the policy and media briefing prepared by GSA for this year’s World Sepsis Day campaign and urged all governments to make sepsis “the next success story in global health,” building on the 2030 Global Agenda for Sepsis, a landmark strategy developed with more than 70 partner organizations. Her closing echoed Dr. Tedros’s charge: “Nobody should die from sepsis.”

Each year, around 25.2 million children worldwide are diagnosed with sepsis, with more than 3.4 million tragically dying from the condition. Despite this devastating impact, there are still many unanswered questions about how best to diagnose, treat, and care for children with sepsis. 

That’s why the Paediatric Adaptive Sepsis Platform Trial (PASSPORT) team has partnered with the James Lind Alliance to run the Paediatric Sepsis Research Priority Survey.  

This international survey invites patients, parents, carers, and health care professionals to share their views on the most important unanswered questions about sepsis in children.  

The findings will directly shape the design of PASSPORT, a groundbreaking adaptive platform trial set to begin in 2027. By focusing on the priorities identified by the community, PASSPORT aims to deliver faster answers and improve outcomes for critically ill children. 

🎈 Take part and share your voice.

We are now live from Berlin with “Push, Pull, Partner: Building a Global AMR Incentive Ecosystem”, our World Health Summit Side Event co-hosted with the Infectious Disease Alliance (IDA), ARMoR, NGO Nest, and the WHO Collaborating Center on Health Workforce Policy and Planning.

Please use the chat function on YouTube to ask questions and interact with us. The event recording will be available immediately after the livestream has concluded.

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Our very own Simone Mancini, GSA Partnership Lead, will give a talk about the synergies and paradoxes of two crucial aspects of the fight against infectious diseases: sepsis and antimicrobial resistance.

Time: Oct 14, 2025, 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM CEST

Venue: Berlin, “Tuechtig – Raum für Inklusion”, Oudenarder Straße 16, Haus D06, 13347 Berlin, Germany

We are now live from Berlin with “Breaking the Silos: Primary Healthcare as the Bridge between NCDs and IDs”, our World Health Summit Side Event co-hosted with the Infectious Disease Alliance (IDA), FIND, UNICEF, Amref, and more.

Please use the chat function on YouTube to ask questions and interact with us. The event recording will be available immediately after the livestream has concluded.

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At the event “Breaking the Silos: Primary Healthcare as the Bridge between NCDs and IDs”, Prof. Reinhart will shed light on the strong link between non-communicable diseases and sepsis and the need to integrate early sepsis detection and effective treatment in primary healthcare and in relevant healthcare strategies.

The panel will be co-moderated by Simone Mancini, GSA Partnership Lead and Coordinator of the Regional Sepsis Alliances.

Time: Oct 13, 2025, 7:00 AM - 9:30 AM CEST

Venue: Berlin, “Tuechtig – Raum für Inklusion”, Oudenarder Straße 16, Haus D06, 13347 Berlin, Germany

On October 7, 2025, Dr. Niranjan “Tex” Kissoon, President of the Global Sepsis Alliance (GSA), took part in the InFACT/ISARIC/CIIC-HIN Colloquium on Building Global Acute Care Research Capacity, held in Kigali, Rwanda.

Dr. Kissoon was one of the panelists in the session “Perspectives: Funders, Policymakers, and Stakeholders,” which explored how a broad range of stakeholders can help refine and realize the goal of an “always on, always active intelligent health care system”, one in which clinical care is continuously informed by integrated research.

The discussion, co-moderated by Dr. John Marshall (InFACT) and Dr. Niamh Mahon, addressed themes such as how global research networks can contribute to resilient health systems, new models of funding and collaboration, and how to ensure that patients’ and families’ voices are heard in shaping research priorities.

Dr. Kissoon joined global leaders discussing strategies to strengthen research collaboration and health system preparedness.