The golden hour - sepsis

Thousands of Belgians die of sepsis every year. In addition, the condition affects tens of thousands of patients each year, sometimes with severe consequences, such as amputations. 
Sepsis begins with a severe infection, caused by a bacterium, a virus, or a parasite. Your immune system notices the intruder and reacts.  "Usually such reactions stop on their own and inhibit themselves at some point," says infectiologist Professor Erika Vlieghe. "In sepsis, that doesn't happen. The patient is not only sick because of the infection, but becomes much sicker because of an immune system reaction that is out of control." 
An estimated 15 to 20 per cent of sepsis patients die. Elderly patients and those with weakened immune systems are more likely to die than young, healthy people. Premature babies are also a high-risk group; as many as a fifth of all premature babies develop sepsis while in hospital. Ten per cent do not survive.
Professor Erika Vlieghe and a group of experts have put forward a national plan. One of the central aspects of this plan is a national registry to collect patient data and initiate research. The more data collected, the better AI models can predict which patient is at risk of sepsis. The same applies to cancer patients undergoing targeted immunotherapy. These predictions could allow patients’ treatment to be adjusted and ensure that sepsis can be prevented.