Media Release

Bengaluru, Jan 16: The Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISCCM) National body is having a yearlong programme on "Sepsis Day." The main agenda is to prevent, treat and defeat Sepsis by raising awareness across the Nation.

Sepsis is a life-threatening medical emergency resulting from a severe infection anywhere in the body leading to multiorgan failure, and if not recognized and treated promptly it can result in death.

Infection in different parts of the body can present with different symptoms and some patients may be more vulnerable to acquire severe infection. Early recognition that a patient is suffering from infection is crucial to diagnosis and management. Early treatment can prevent progression of the patient into this deadly condition called sepsis.

So it is very important that lay persons and the public be aware of this deadly condition called "Sepsis". This will help them to seek help early when they suffer from an infection before the condition worsens to Sepsis.

A sepsis public awareness program for educating the public was conducted at St John’s Medical College Hospital, Bangalore on January 13 from 10 am-11 am by the Department of Critical Care Medicine and the Hospital Infection Control Committee (HICC) at St John’s Medical College Hospital, in collaboration with the ISCCM Bangalore Chapter. The audience comprised of over 250 patients and their attenders at the hospital OPD, apart from doctors, nurses and other staff of the institution.

The programme started with a welcome speech and song. There were power point presentations to educate the public on what is sepsis, what are the symptoms of sepsis, what complications can happen and who are the people who are susceptible to this infection. The power point presentation was explained both in English and Kannada. This was followed by skit on sepsis and importance of early recognition of sepsis. The 1 hour program concluded with a presentation in Kannada explaining how to prevent Sepsis, which included hand and food hygiene, vaccination of susceptible population and chronic medical conditions should be well managed and to seek help early with respect to infection . There was also a short question and answer session with the public for clarification of doubts regarding the topic. The feedback from the public was good with respect to what they learnt from the programme.

It is hoped that this programme motivates the conduct of several other Sepsis awareness initiatives across the country.