To be scared of Sepsis?

[bananaplease]

It seems to be in the news so much that people are dying from this and it happens without people realising.

Is it a new thing? I don't remember hearing about it much before, but that might just be the increased power of social media/news apps etc.

I might stop reading the news. It's so depressing.

My 29 day old son is currently in paediatric ICU because he has sepsis, meningitis and endocarditis which also caused him to have a stroke. All from a UTI. He shouldn't be alive right now.
So yes, I'm scared of sepsis.

My sepsis was caused by a womb infection. My waters had broken earlier and I was waiting for labour. I went to hospital because I started bleeding and panicked because I'd had a miscarriage before and blood during pregnancy terrifies me. I was diagnosed with van infection and induced. 4 hours later I had sepsis. They only picked it up because I was being continuously monitored. I was fine, apart from an almost symptomless infection, one minute and then the next minute I had a temperature of 40° and felt horrendous.

Youbogglemymind You poor thing, and him. I've been there, my 3 week old contracted sepsis (over a year ago now) and I know how horrific it is to see them so poorly.

So very sorry you are in this position and will be thinking of you. Feel free to PM if you need anyone to talk too x I hope there is good news soon

The vaccine mention earlier is against meningococcal. The thing that causes sepsis and meningitis I thought there was a blog on mumsnet about lady who lost her dh and said. This jab will help?

Never you can develop sepsis from ANY infection.

It is the body's own natural response to infection going into overdrive and attacking itself.

You can vaccinate against certain infections. And those infections can be a potential source of sepsis, amongst MANY others. But you cannot vaccinate against sepsis.

I had sepsis over Christmas. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It was horrible and terrifying, I'm only just recovering now. I think I caught it just in time

Basically: body detects a bug: instead of just making the environment in the location of the bug hostile to the bug (so say chest infection = produce mucus and an urge to cough, an infected cut: pus & local swelling etc) the body tries to make itself generally hostile to bugs by changing its environment so that the body's chemistry and temperature is incompatable with the life of the bug. This works fine if its still within ranges that allows the body itself to maintain life. But in SEPSIS the blood vessles dilate TOO MUCH and the heart and organs struggle. The body chemistry alters TOO MUCH. The temperature gets too high or too low. So now instead of just being a hostile environment for the bug it was trying to attack, it has created an environment incompatable with its own life.

Nobody fully knows why some people will have a "normal" response to a bug and others will have an out if control "septic" response to the same bug. There are "factors" but its still a bit random.

Does that explain a bit why its not about which bug it was? And so a vaccine for sepsis is not on the cards?

The symptoms can be quite similar to flu, (esp high temp warm to touch at the onset, but shivering once you deteriorate) so check you don't have a cut or insect bite that looks a bit inflammed, or if you have had recent known surgery etc so you can assume it might stem from there.

Go to A & E and they can do a quick arterial blood test then put you on the correct antibiotics.

All you need is a blood test to see if you have sepsis \ infection or not.

It can come on very quickly so it hasn't always been missed because it just wasnt there before ifyswim as the onset can be that quick.

I hope this is of help.

Most bad infections that arent getting better will eventually cause sepsis. The raging fevers and delerium spoken about in history books will mostly have been sepsis. But at what point this'll happen will vary HUGELY from person to person. One person will get sepsis before the underlying infection has even got to a point where they noticed it and will never know the cause. Another person will have an untreated gaping pussy wound for months before it eventually gives them sepsis.

*recent surgery or illness ie chest infection, uti

Boggle Gallon And to everyone who has been affected by this,

I opened this thread because ive had a minor accident at home tonight. I very badly banged the knuckle of the finger of my left hand on the corner of the fridge and have been left with a nasty bruise and a cut. I ran the cut under warm water and then used a no fragrance baby wipe to gently clean around it before putting a plaster on. But i have terrible paranoia about this sort of thing.

helena I'm sure you will be absolutely fine.

This is however a good example in that if your cut doesn't seem to be healing properly and you do suddenly get a temperature and feel a bit flu like then yes your body could be systemically shutting down and you would need strong IV antibiotics.

or just might just have flu

hence the importance of an arterial blood gas. Blood test at your nearest hospital.

Ta the low urine output thing has reminded me of a kidney infection i had in Feb 2008 I was ok and lying in bed ready to go to sleep but then had terrible pain and had to get up to go to loo and passed out.

I was taken to hospital diagnosed with a kidney infection and kept in and given intra antibiotics They kept me in for a few days and wouldnt let me go until i started peeing again. Low urine output is unusual for me as i have an overactive bladder.

You know your own body and that of close loved ones so you can usually tell that somethings not quite right, just trust your instincts without over worrying too much.

Thankyou

There's a sticky thread right now raising awareness, as apparently sepsis is much more prevalent around the northern hemisphere Christmas.

I am thankful for the awareness raising. If any of my family or friends are in anyway ill, it's now absolutely going to be one of the first things that springs to my mind.

to all those who've lost someone, or are waiting on news of someone.

Sorry to all those who have lost someone. Thanks to Luna who posted from her Gp Perspective and suggested checking on people every two hours at night.
As I posted above my friend would have probably died if another friend hadn’t happened to have come round and insisted on getting medical help.
Jason Watkins sadly lost his daughter overnight after she had been sent home from hospital. He now campaigns for sepsis awareness.
I would and always do caution against people relying on 111. When my dd was 18 months she had flu. It was around the time of bird flu so there was lots of press about not bothering your gp unnecessarily. So I soldiered on alone at home with her and the 111 nurse just said sleep was the best thing when in fact she was sleeping too much. Luckily df told me to take her to a doctor who told me to go to a and e immediately where she was admitted with pneumonia.

My sil died from it but having read the statements (there was a police inquiry and court case because of corcumstances) there was every chance had somone called an ambulance she would have survived she was very unwell for several days

My DS got it following an emergency strangulated hernia op at 2 months old. It was terrifying, he was barely conscious and had a lumbar puncture to rule out meningitis. He was then on IV antibiotics for a few days and made a full recovery

any infection can cause sepsis. There will never be a vaccine for sepsis. Vaccines are for viruses. Sepsis is commonly secondary to bacterial infections.

Well obviously this isn't correct. Vaccines are for bacteria also.

I don't think this has been explained properly. There is no vaccine for sepsis because that is the body response, but there are many vaccines for the bacteria that can trigger sepsis. These include the meningococcus species, pneumococcus. Vaccines against Group A Strep have been trialled and are being trialled around the world, and when that's successful it will be a real game changer: major cause of sepsis, scarlet fever, rheumatic fever.

It's also worth noting with death stats that this is often reliant on what the most junior doctor puts on a death certificate. So if an 90 year old dies of 1) sepsis 2) pneumonia 3) dementia it will be counted as a sepsis death. You used to just put "old age". It's not that 45000 young people are dying needlessly.

I had sepsis last year. I had usual symptoms of a virus - sore throat, achy bones, croaky voice. Thought I was getting better but during following week gradually felt more unwell again. I didn’t go to Gp because of all the messages we get about not bothering Gp with viruses. Symptoms included feeling utterly weary, very bad pains in pelvis, diarrhoea, and having at times high temperatures/chills. Symptoms mainly controlled with OTC drugs and hot water bottles for pain, so thought just nasty virus. Just didn’t realise how ill I was at all. That’s the odd thing. I was quite detached about it. Then got sheet of pain on side of chest. Taken to A&E by partner with ?pneumonia. Was in for 11 days with sepsis. Took months to really recover.

Well obviously this isn't correct. Vaccines are for bacteria also. well obviously if you had read on you would see that as I said, there are some bacterial vaccines, but no vaccine for all bacteria.Was trying to explain it in simpler terms.

Outcomes for sepsis are better than ever but the future of prevention probably lies in personalised medicine (genomics) to identify people with a predisposition to a sepsis response. This is another Brexit issue unfortunately, up until now British people have been disproportionately reprensented in genomic research (ie its more effective for us) but Brexit is looking likely to flip that.

Increasing uptake in EXISTING vaccines. There is no sepsis vaccine but the ones being offered can help keep you well. Eg whooping cough can lead onto recurring pneumonia & sepsis. Flu can wipe out your immune system and leave you vulnerable etc.

Protect our weapons: less abuse of antibiotics. Another brexit issue. No good us toughening up if we cant influence our neighbours to stop selling them in bulk over the counter!

And further awareness and fast recognition and treatment.

Some awful stories. I had it as a kid from an infected chickenpot spot. Good old antibiotics that worked! I was still ill for a couple of months. It's a good idea to know signs and symptoms but there is no point in being overly worried.