Patient organisation Sepsibel asks that urgent work be done on implementing a national plan against sepsis.
The condition, an extreme immune system response to infection, affects nearly 41,000 people in our country each year and is still largely unknown. Although a national plan was drawn up last year, implementation is delayed.
Sepsis is a severe and often fatal response of the body to an infection. Not only germs are attacked, their own tissue is also damaged. This can cause important organs such as the heart, kidneys and lungs to fail. Every year, 41,000 people are affected by sepsis in our country, of whom 7,600 die.
Despite this, two in three Belgians have never heard of the condition. To change this, an expert group led by professor Erika Vlieghe, infectiologist at the UZA and the UA, prepared a report in 2024 with guidelines for early recognition and treatment of sepsis, as well as information, prevention and aftercare.
Although that plan is already in place from May last year, no work has yet been done on its implementation, says Ilse Malfait of Sepsibel.
With this plan "we have laid the foundation for tackling sepsis in Belgium. Further action is urgently needed to translate the recommendations of this plan into concrete actions that step up the fight against this assassin," says Erika Vlieghe.
According to Malfait, there is an urgent need for a coordinator to be appointed to implement the plan. He must then see which of the 56 recommendations contained in the plan, including sensitisation and rapid detection, must first be addressed.
Sepsibel is organising the symposium on the condition on September 9. The event brings together patients, families of deceased sepsis victims, healthcare providers, researchers and policymakers to accelerate actions.
