sepsis

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As If the Killer Got Away

Deborah J. Nelson, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Ryan McNeill | Reuters | September 7, 2016

In a more than yearlong investigation, Reuters used court records, news reports, patient advocacy organizations and Web searches to identify individuals who had died of antibiotic-resistant infections and then contacted relatives to obtain death certificates and medical records. In some cases, the death certificate did not mention the lethal infection. In many others, it did, but the death occurred in a state that doesn’t track the infections. Even in states that do track some superbug deaths, none are counted nationally, in real time, in any unified surveillance system...

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Blood Infections Play Role In Up To Half Of Hospital Deaths: Study

Robert Preidt | MedlinePlus | May 19, 2014

Bloodstream infections -- also known as sepsis -- occur in about 10 percent of hospital patients in the United States but contribute to as many as half of all hospital deaths, a new study says. Read More »

EHRs May Help Save Lives From Sepsis

Erin McCann | HealthIT News | March 21, 2014

Here's another reason why those multi-million dollar electronic health record systems might be finally paying off, in terms of lives potentially saved.  According to new research, EHRs can be used to predict the early stages of sepsis, one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., responsible for killing some 210,000 people each year.

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Enzyme Is Crucial for Combatting Antibiotic-Resistant E. Coli Infections

Press Release | University of Kent | October 27, 2016

Research by bioscientists at the University of Kent and the University of Queensland is expected to pave the way for new approaches to kill bacteria that no longer respond to conventional antibiotics. In a paper published by Scientific Reports, Kent's Dr Mark Shepherd and colleagues demonstrate the importance of an enzyme, cytochrome bd-I, for survival of E. coli that is resistant to multiple antibiotics. E. coli causes serious conditions including sepsis, bladder infections, kidney failure, and dysentery. The human immune system produces nitric oxide to kill invading E. coli, and cytochrome bd-I is shown to provide significant resistance to nitric oxide during infection...

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First Research Programme Identifies Potential Antibiotic Resistance Breakers

Press Release | Antibiotic Research UK | December 1, 2016

Antibiotic Research UK's first research programme finds a number of drugs that can break antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. Antibiotic resistant infections are predicted to lead to 10 million deaths per year globally by 2050 at a cost of up to $100 trillion to the world economy. In the UK at least 5,000 people per year die from resistant infections. New research by Antibiotic Research UK (ANTRUK), the world's first charity created to develop new antibiotics in the fight against superbugs, has found Antibiotic Resistance Breakers (ARBs) in its first major lab research programme...

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She’s Got a Radical Approach for the Age of Superbugs: Don’t Fight Infections. Learn to Live with Them

Usha Lee McFarling | STAT | May 19, 2017

As her father lay dying of sepsis, Janelle Ayres spent nine agonizing days at his bedside. When he didn’t beat the virulent bloodstream infection, she grieved. And then she got frustrated. She knew there had to be a better way to help patients like her dad. In fact, she was working on one in her lab. Ayres, a hard-charging physiologist who has unapologetically decorated her lab with bright touches of hot pink, is intent on upending our most fundamental understanding of how the human body fights disease...

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Superbugs Killing More People than Breast Cancer, Trust Warns

Katie Morley and Madlen Davies | The Telegraph | December 10, 2016

The superbug crisis is killing more patients than breast cancer as the Government is relying on flawed figures which mask the true scale of the problem, health experts have warned. The Department of Health estimates that 5,000 people die each year due to drug resistance, but Dr Ron Daniels, chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, claims the true figure is around 12,000. The number of deaths is rising each year as more bugs that lead to blood poisoning are becoming resistant to antibiotics...

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The Grim Propect of Antibiotic Resistance

Staff Writer | The Economist | May 21, 2016

When people hear about antibiotic resistance creating “superbugs”, they tend to think of new diseases and pandemics spreading out of control. The real threat is less flamboyant, but still serious: existing problems getting worse, sometimes dramatically. Infections acquired in hospital are a prime example. They are already a problem, but with more antibiotic resistance they could become a much worse one. Elective surgery, such as hip replacements, now routine, would come to carry what might be seen as unacceptable risk. So might Caesarean sections. The risks of procedures which suppress the immune system, such as organ transplants and cancer chemotherapies, would increase...

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This Algorithm Accidentally Predicted Which Hospital Patients Were Most Likely To Die

Stephanie M. Lee | Buzz Feed News | September 19, 2016

Sepsis is one of the biggest hospital hazards you’ve maybe never heard of. When the body overreacts to an infection, it can trigger widespread inflammation that can in turn cause tissue damage and organ failure. It causes one-third to one-half of all deaths in US hospitals. But because sepsis’s symptoms, like fever and difficulty breathing, sometimes look a lot like other illnesses, it can be hard to detect, especially in the early stages. So a team at Banner Health, a hospital system in Phoenix, Arizona, turned to computer science for a solution...

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‘Superbug’ Scourge Spreads as U.S. Fails to Track Rising Human Toll

Ryan McNeill, Deborah J. Nelson and Yasmeen Abutaleb | Reuters | September 7, 2016

Fifteen years after the U.S. declared drug-resistant infections to be a grave threat, the crisis is only worsening, a Reuters investigation finds, as government agencies remain unwilling or unable to impose reporting requirements on a healthcare industry that often hides the problem...

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