Common Blood Infections Kill Millions

AP ^ | 2-14-04

[nuconvert]

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- An international group of doctors is pushing for aggressive treatment to prevent half a million deaths worldwide from a common bloodstream infection.

Sepsis kills more than 200,000 people annually in the United States alone -- more deaths than from lung and breast cancer combined. Muppets creator Jim Henson died from it 14 years ago.

[Polybius]

...to prevent half a million deaths worldwide from a common bloodstream infection.

Sepsis is not "a" bloodstream infection. It is just a generic term to mean any infection that gets out of hand to the point that it invades the bloodstream.

[Bigg Red]

Yikes! Something else to worry about!

[armymarinemom]

I thought that Jim Henson died from Group A beta hemolytic strep that was well advanced into a necrotic pneumonia before he sought treatment.

[nuconvert]

I didn't think it was sepsis. But he certainly could have acquired sepsis before he died.

[Hildy]

I thought Jim Henson died from Lung Cancer. I'm going to look this up.

[Hildy]

Here it is:

Mr. Henson, creator of "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show," developed flulike symptoms in May 1990. Four days later, his condition worsened enough that he went to the hospital. He died 20 hours later, of complications of pneumonia caused by an aggressive group A streptococcal infection. Despite antibiotics, the infection caused his heart and kidneys to fail.

[Polybius]

I thought that Jim Henson died from Group A beta hemolytic strep that was well advanced into a necrotic pneumonia before he sought treatment.

See Post 2.

Once you have an infection necrotizing your lung, you are pretty much guaranteed to have sepsis. All "sepsis" means is that the bacteria entered the bloodstream and the blodstream became infected.

The reporter is simply taking a secondary complication of any infectious process and sensationalizing it into the Killer Disease of the Month.

[Leisler]

Second hand smoke first. Think of the children.

[nuconvert]

Thanks for looking that up.
Here's what the article says:


"Sepsis typically starts as a bacterial infection that can originate from pneumonia,..."

He could have acquired sepsis secondary to the primary infection which caused the pneumonia. It's up to the coroner to decide what killed him. You'd have to know what he wrote on the death certificate.

[nuconvert]

Well, "disease of the month" is a little flip.
Sepsis is a serious problem and not just as a secondary infection to another disease process, but also iatrogenic induced sepsis.

[TruthNtegrity]

I was just about to clarify what sepsis is - but you did it, thanks.

I almost died from pneumonia-based sepsis in 1982. Thank God the fifth intravenous antibiotic "worked" and saved my life. I remember lying with my head off the bed so my lungs could drain into the bucket on the floor - the respiratory folks had given up on me, and I'd been given Last Rites.

The Doctor's insistence on giving me different and stronger doses of antibiotics is what saved my life. However, for the next 7 years, I fought a systemic yeast infection that could have been prevented with a prophilactic course of nystatin, or that strange milk, Acidolphilus (sp?), even yogurt.

I also have a friend who makes me crazy over antibiotics. This person recently had an bad cold on the day of a Doctor's appointment and told me they were going to get something for it. I got on my soapbox about the stupidity of requesting an antibiotic for a damn cold. If they had a sinus infection or earaches, or some ancillary infection, then maybe "yes" on the antibiotics. But not to ask for an antibiotic because they had a cold, for cripes sake.

I've watched this same person get 5 different, and the most recently released, antibiotics, in a year, for whatever they show up in the Doctor's office complaining about.

I don't know who I'm angrier at - the former friend for perpetually requesting the antibiotics, or the dang Doctor for giving them!?! I guess the answer is, both of them.

[armymarinemom]

That was my point. It was an aggressive strain of group A well advanced. Not just the resulting sepsis. A large issue was also made about Mr. Henson when the press was talking about flesh eating bacteria. Both are true but no a big surprise especially if you have seen how destructive an aggressive case of group A can be. It was a rare aggressive infection. Not new news but just a spin.

[Polybius]

Well, "disease of the month" is a little flip. Sepsis is a serious problem and not just as a secondary infection to another disease process, but also iatrogenic induced sepsis.

I did not say "secondary infection".

I said "secondary complication".

By definition, an "iatrogenic induced sepsis" is a complication of whatever intervention (central line, Foley catheter, wound contamination, etc.) gave rise to the sepsis.

Sepsis is not a primary disease that you simply "catch" out of the clear blue sky.

For example, Stonewall Jackson was shot in the arm. The arm had to be amputated. He then developed pneumonia, possibly from aspiration during surgery. He then developed sepsis and died.

Stonewall Jackson did not die because he "caught" sepsis. He died because he "caught" a .577 caliber Enfield round to his arm.

Anything that can get bacteria into the bloodstream from a gunshot wound, to pneumonia, to childbirth, to a central venous line inserted during hospitalization to cutting your hand while gardening can cause sepsis.

The author refers to sepsis as "a common bloodstream infection" as if it were a unique infectious disease such as AIDS or TB.

The lay reader is left to wonder and fear if he might "catch" sepsis if he goes to visit Aunt Martha at the hospital.

[Polybius]

I've watched this same person get 5 different, and the most recently released, antibiotics, in a year, for whatever they show up in the Doctor's office complaining about. I don't know who I'm angrier at - the former friend for perpetually requesting the antibiotics, or the dang Doctor for giving them!?! I guess the answer is, both of them.

That is indeed a big problem.

Such people are developing future bioweapons in their own bodies that can be unleashed on society. The doctors that enable such behavior may as well be working at a WMD lab.

[nuconvert]

Thanks.
I'm not a lay reader.
I know what iatrogenic means.

[Polybius]

Thanks. I'm not a lay reader. I know what iatrogenic means.

But other readers in this forum are lay readers.

My point is that the author has sensetionalized "sepsis" in such a way that the lay reader is left to fear sepsis as an infectious disease that can be "caught".

"Let's go visit Aunt Martha at the hospital."

"Are you crazy? The doctor says she has sepsis. We might catch it!"

[nuconvert]

I don't think it's sensationalized. But a story has to get people's attention in order to be read.
I think most people know someone who has recovered from or died after developing sepsis.

[top of the world ma]

I have a friend who just had a quadruple by-pass last Thursday at The Texas Heart Institute in Houston. He was infused with Vancomycin 2 hours before surgery. The man sharing the prep room with my friend was also infused before his surgery. It must now be a common precaution.

[spetznaz]

I agree that it is not being over-sensationalized Nuconvert. This is one of the stealth threats out there ....overuse of antibiotics leading to increased immunity for the pathogens. I remember reading this article (i believe it was in the Lanclet) that said that in hospitals the pathogens that dwell there are immune to all but one particular drug, which is supposed to be this super-strong drug that is rarely used. And the article was saying that due to people using antibiotics for even the slightest sniffle there is the chance that in the near future bacteria that have always been non-fatal since the start of modern medicine will start killing people like crazy.

In the civil war most victims of gunshots who survived the original injury died later of infection. With the advent of modern drugs bacterial pathogens have largely taken a back seat to viral infections, leading most of the population to think bacteria to be 'lesser powers' compared to virii. Who knows ...they might even think Anthrax is a virus and not a bacteria. However even your average pathogenic bacteria under the right circumstance can prove deadly (i know most bacteria are benign, and many actually helpful, but some are rabid killers). If they were to become super-virulent and resistant to antibiotics then we might be facing something bad.