Results and Presentations from the 2nd Annual Meeting of the European Sepsis Alliance

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On Monday, March 18th, 2019, we hosted the 2nd Annual Meeting of the European Sepsis Alliance in Brussels.

Sepsis survivors, policy makers, representatives of the European Commission, researchers, representatives of European healthcare societies, as well as other important stakeholders all gathered in the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the European Union to discuss how to jointly support the European Sepsis Alliance to accelerate the fight against sepsis in Europe. Besides presentations by Konrad Reinhart, Vida Hamilton, and Necmettin Unal, John McCarthy, sepsis survivor and representative of the UK Sepsis Trust and Shahrzad Kiavash, sepsis survivor and double-amputee triathlete, shared their personal stories of their encounter with sepsis and the achievements of the UK Sepsis Trust in the UK, respectively.

In the second part of the event, the panel discussion ‘Why We Need a Call for Action in Europe – the Patient Perspective’ made the voices of patients heard, a crucial and often underestimated component in the fight against sepsis. Our thanks go to Shahrzad Kiavash, Dennis Kredler, John McCarthy, Idelette Nutma, Aurica Pripa, and Arne Trumann for participating in the panel discussion, as well as to Christiane Hartog for moderating it so very thoughtfully.

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The second panel discussion, chaired by MEP José Inácio Faria, explored the need for a comprehensive strategy to tackle infection prevention, sepsis, and antimicrobial resistance.

The 2nd Annual Meeting of the European Sepsis Alliance was rounded off by two working groups, on research on epidemiology and quality of sepsis care in Europe and advocacy and policy.

On behalf of the European Sepsis Alliance and the Global Sepsis Alliance, we call for a comprehensive One Health Pan-European Infection Management Strategy that:

  • considers the intrinsic links between antimicrobial resistance, infection prevention/control, and sepsis control and care

  • understands the importance of overcoming silos within systems by initiating dialogue between sepsis advocacy groups, sepsis survivors, experts and professional societies and representatives of the European Commission, Council of Ministers, the European Parliament, the ECDC, and the WHO together with representatives and advocates of the AMR and IPC agendas

  • promotes awareness of sepsis and the potential of sepsis prevention by increasing vaccination rates and access to clean care, and to clean water, sanitation and hygiene where these are lacking

  • educates laypeople and healthcare workers about early recognition of sepsis

  • fosters the improvement of sepsis diagnosis and management by evidence-based sepsis management, improvement methodologies and systems resource and design

  • supports research and the better application of interoperability to existing national or regional patient-level datasets to better understand the epidemiology and burden of sepsis and AMR

  • and considers that AMR, IPC, and sepsis control and care are collectively a major health threat which must become an integral and cohesive part of any national, regional, and global healthcare strategy

The European Sepsis Alliance was founded under the patronage of the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, at our event “Sepsis - A Call to EU Action” in March 2018 and is part of the GSA strategy to establish 6 regional sepsis alliances spanning the world, implementing the demands of the WHO Resolution on Sepsis, and saving lives.

Marvin Zick