Stop Sepsis Campaign

Since awareness is the first step to preventing maternal sepsis, an important component of the Initiative has focused on empowering health workers in the participating facilities to suspect, treat and prevent maternal sepsis. A number of resources were developed to help them learn more about sepsis, help them engage their communities, and equip their teams with the knowledge they need to identify and prevent maternal sepsis in their health facilities

VOICES FROM THE FIELD

“Implementation of the campaign changed the way the city’s providers acted. First, it helped in bridging the gap between academics and providers, which, in turn, helped motivate the entire staff around the study. The campaign helped us all feel more committed with the study. And, most importantly, it helped shed light on a problem (maternal sepsis) that we hadn’t made public before.”

Cali, Colombia

“In (our) facility there was already a protocol for sepsis early recognition, but the campaign, as well as the study made it come alive again. Sepsis was on everyone’s eyes and mouths. The teams were very permeable to knowledge and eager to recognize and treat sepsis immediately.”

Campinas, Brazil

“Participation in the campaign allowed me to see that we can find cases of maternal sepsis in the most diverse locations in a facility. And that invariably the most complex cases were those resulting from a condition that was neglected or treated incorrectly/untimely.”

Maputo, Mozambique

“Despite having some protocols in place, during the campaign and study we realized that these were not sufficient to detect women with infection. This campaign was very important and helped us find a lot of cases that might have been missed otherwise (…) We are planning on improving reporting mechanisms of any suspected cases and supportive supervision and surveillance as a result of this study.”

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

As a result of our participation in GLOSS, we actually committed as a Program in our 2017 Maternal Death Review Forum to eliminate maternal sepsis as a cause of maternal death.”

Manila, Philippines

THE CAMPAIGN IN COUNTRIES

Colombia

Our GLOSS colleagues María Fernanda Escobar and Javier Carvajal, together with Adriana Messa from Fundación Valle de Lili in Cali, Colombia have created a new video to showcase STOP SEPSIS campaign information about sepsis during pregnancy. The “Sepsis en embarazo” video is being shown on TV screens in the Fundación Valle del Lili during the data preparation and collection phases of the Global Maternal Sepsis Study. It is a wonderful demonstration of the campaign in action and an invaluable resource for healthcare practitioners and patients.

Note: video is available in Spanish language only.

Guatemala

Our GLOSS colleagues at the Hospital Regional de Occidente (HRO) in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, have created a new video to raise awareness on maternal sepsis and share details about the upcoming Global Maternal Sepsis Study. The video features commentary from doctors William Arriaga and Guadalupe Flores of the HRO department of gynaecology and obstetrics, as well as a patient perspective from a pregnant woman surviving sepsis on the importance of studying maternal sepsis.

Note: video is available in Spanish language only.

Mexico

“If we suspect sepsis we can have an impact on the reduction of maternal deaths from a preventable cause.” Dr Herrera Maldonado (GLOSS country coordinator)

In Mexico, the GLOSS team decided to implement a country-wide awareness campaign, even in facilities that were not participating in GLOSS. This decision was made as a result of their own assessments at hospitals in every state in Mexico; they discovered that community and hospital acquired infections were among the top causes of death among women during or after pregnancy. With a better understanding of maternal sepsis, and with improved awareness of how to prevent, recognise and treat the condition, Dr Herrera Maldonado felt the GLOSS campaign would help Mexico to prevent maternal deaths nationwide.

Follow this link to read the entire article posted on the WHO website: Raising awareness of maternal sepsis in Mexico

Colombia

Our collective efforts to raise awareness on maternal sepsis did not end with the GLOSS awareness campaign. Our colleagues from Philippines describe what they have been doing country-wide in an article of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Magazine. Follow this link to learn more about what has been learned through GLOSS and done since to stop sepsis: https://www.ogmagazine.org.au/21/4-21/raising-global-awareness-on-maternal-sepsis/