Hospitals improve screening for sepsis

CHENNAI: One out of every four patients in Intensive Care Unit in the country suffers from sepsis and almost 35% of it is hospital acquired, say health experts. A result of severe infection in the blood stream, it can lead to organ failure and in India it accounts for 80% of lost lives a year in childhood with more than 6 million affected neonates and children and more than 100,000 cases of maternal sepsis.

Dr B R Das of SRL Diagnostics pointed out that though sepsis was the most common form of infection, it was least recognized. A recent nationwide study by Indian Intensive Care Case Mix and Practice Patterns in 124 ICUs across 17 states showed that mortality rates were 46% in patients with septic shock and 42% overall in septic patients compared to 17.8% in ICU patients who did not have sepsis

As detecting sepsis in a normal blood culture test is not accurate and is time consuming, the diagnostic centre has introduced ‘Sepsiscreen’, an exclusive test that can detect 345 pathogens. “The results are 13-75 hours faster than a routine blood culture test, which means we can save more patients who might otherwise die due to delay in detection,” said Dr Das.

Warning that not all tests were 100% accurate, doctors say it is important to nip the problem in the bud by preventing hospital-acquired infections. Such infections can be avoided if certain precautions are taken, said Dr V Ramasubramanian of Apollo Hospitals. “Invasive medical equipment like catheters, endoscopes, stents, balloons and needles used during dialysis are carriers of infections,” said the infectious disease specialist. It is important to keep all medical equipment sterilized always.

Following basic standards of hand hygiene, displaying risk information in hospitals, disinfecting patients and proper use of antibiotics can go a long way in reducing the number of hospital borne infections.