Advancing knowledge gap in Sepsis: Stakeholders build synergies in policy engagements

Stakeholders including health workers and a section of the media have converged to bridge the knowledge gap in the epidemiology, diagnosis and quality care of patients hospitalized with sepsis.

Sepsis is a serious condition that happens when the body’s immune system has an extreme response to an infection. The condition can affect anyone but people who are older, very young, and pregnant or have other health problems are at higher risk.

The common signs may include fever, fast heart rate, rapid breathing, confusion, and body pain which can lead to septic shock, multiple organ failure and death.

To be able to monitor the ailment and prescribe medications, the Sub-Saharan Consortium for the Advancement of Innovative Research and Care in Sepsis (STAIRS) is conducting high-quality research addressing critical knowledge gaps in the epidemiology, diagnosis and quality care of patients hospitalized with sepsis in resource- constrained settings of sub-Saharan Africa.

This research will be conducted in synergy with additional work packages focused on sepsis-specific outputs in capacity building, networking and policy engagement.

Dr. John Adabie Appiah, Ghana Principal Investigator, at the opening of a four-day evidence-informed policy making training course in Kumasi, outlined the need for patients to know they had such conditions (Sepsis).

He said the policy engagement and research transfer work package, the evidence-informed policy-making training course was designed to strengthen the translation of research outputs to policy and ultimately impact the quality of care for survival from sepsis.

It will capacitate and enhance stakeholders’ ability to find and use the available evidence to influence new evidence and national clinical guidelines, he added.

According to him, the development of the evidence-informed policy-making training course responded to the challenge of weak capacity among decision-makers to find and use evidence in the policy- making process (encompassing: agenda-setting, formulation of policy options, implementation, and evaluation).

The African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), an Africa-led, regional, non-profit research and policy institute facilitated the STAIRS training.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sepsis is one of the most frequent causes of death worldwide.

From data published in 2020, there were 48.9 million cases and 11 million sepsis-related deaths worldwide, representing 20 percent of global deaths.