Hundreds of children are dying needlessly from sepsis every year, damning report warns
- Sepsis was reported in almost half of the 1,507 child deaths due to infection
Hundreds of children are still dying unnecessarily from sepsis every year, a damning report warns today.
According to the National Child Mortality Database, about one in six of all child deaths in the past three years were caused by infections.
Sepsis was reported in almost half of the 1,507 child deaths due to infection, with infants most at risk.
But experts said it is likely that the majority of these deaths will have been caused by the condition, which is often poorly diagnosed and recorded despite growing awareness among the public and health community.
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by the body overreacting to an infection, leading to a dangerous drop in blood pressure and organ failure.
Sepsis was reported in almost half of the 1,507 child deaths due to infection, with infants most at risk (Stock Image)
If caught early, antibiotics can relieve the infection. But if it is not treated in time, there is little doctors can do to control the spread of the infection.
Experts from the University of Bristol found that children with underlying health conditions were significantly more likely to die. This also applied to black, Asian and Pakistani children.
People from poorer backgrounds were twice as likely to die than their more affluent peers, the report's authors said, with deaths more common in cities than rural areas.
Children with learning difficulties were particularly at high risk; they were responsible for 67 percent of deaths among children between the ages of five and seventeen.
More than a third of deaths were found to have 'modifiable factors', suggesting their deaths could have been prevented.
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by the body overreacting to an infection, leading to a dangerous drop in blood pressure and organ failure (Stock Image)
The report says: 'Examples include lack of clinical recognition of the deteriorating child, delays in treatment and failure to escalate for timely assessment by a senior.
'Other factors in service provision included poor communication within or between agencies and with families; this included factors where parents' concerns were not listened to and acted upon by healthcare professionals.”
It comes ten years after a landmark report led to new standards for diagnosis and treatment.
Dr. Ron Daniels, executive director of the UK Sepsis Trust, said it is “extremely disappointing” that hospitals are making the same mistakes they made a decade ago.
In 2016, the Daily Mail launched the End the Sepsis Scandal campaign following the tragic case of William Mead, who died at 12 months old after a series of mistakes and misdiagnoses.