If someone’s having a heart attack or a stroke, we know time is critical for treatment. Response to sepsis is just as emergent.

For sepsis, it is critical to give the required antibiotics within one hour, 30 minutes for some infections.

Sepsis used to be called “blood poisoning” and it is a serious infection that can kill. This occurs when bacteria get into the blood, multiply and release toxins. Sepsis involves an infection in which the entire body is inflamed. These various bacteria are called pathogenic because they cause disease.

Sometimes sepsis comes from pneumonia, sometimes from a urinary tract infection. Other sources include just about anywhere in the body including the spine (meningitis), the abdomen, and the skin.

Forks Community Hospital had a team of doctor, nurses, and a pharmacist who prepares a standard set of actions they take when a sepsis patient is diagnosed. Several lab tests are done and specific fluids are given by the intravenous route to attack this problem from all fronts along with the antibiotics.

World Sepsis Day is Sept. 13, 2019. Here are some ways you can help raise awareness of this disease:

1. Tweet at or about World Sepsis Day using the hashtag #wsd19, #stopsepsis, #savelives

2. Share a WSD infographic on your Facebook page, or put up a post mentioning @WorldSepsisDay

3. Temporarily add a pink banner or a button to your website, or set up a microsite informing your visitors about WSD

4. Temporarily add ‘September 13 is World Sepsis Day – Stop Sepsis, Saves Lives’ to your email signature

5. Organize a Twitter chat, a webinar, a Reddit AMA, a Facebook Live, or a Periscope

Sepsis is a medical emergency. Count on the team at Forks Community Hospital to help take care of you.

Janet Schade, MS, RPh

Director of Pharmacy

Disclaimer: This column is not intended as a diagnosis or recommended treatment of a specific condition. Answers are not a replacement for an individual medical evaluation. Individual health concerns should be evaluated by a licensed clinician.