European health leaders meeting at RCSI today

European leaders in health are meeting today at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences to advance a combined approach to sepsis.

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that remains a major cause of preventable death and disability across the world.

The meeting is bringing together European health leaders, policymakers, clinicians, researchers and patient advocates to try and eliminate the variations across Europe in the recognition, management and outcomes of sepsis.

An ambition of the meeting is to use Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU to generate momentum for further European cooperation on sepsis, which may continue through the Lithuanian and Greek Presidencies in 2027.

The host institution, RCSI, is contributing to efforts to improve outcomes through research underlying the condition, new approaches to diagnosis and treatment, and the translation of scientific discoveries.

Dr Mariam Jashi, CEO of the Global Sepsis Alliance, said: “Global recognition of sepsis as a health emergency has never been more important than it is today. The World Health Assembly Resolution on Sepsis, the 2030 Global Agenda for Sepsis, and the support of WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr Hans Kluge over recent years give us a clear mandate for action. What is needed now is political leadership to translate this consensus into concrete commitments.

“Ireland has shown what is possible when sepsis becomes a national priority, with a national programme that has saved lives and offers valuable lessons for others to follow. Our call in Dublin is for Europe to build on Ireland’s leadership, make sepsis a European priority, and avert hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths across the region. The European Sepsis Alliance and Global Sepsis Alliance stand ready to support the EU, its Member States, and every government committed to saving lives from sepsis.”

Professor Steve Kerrigan, Deputy Head of RCSI School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences and co-founder of the Irish Sepsis Alliance, has been closely involved in efforts to advance sepsis as a national and European policy priority.

Professor Kerrigan said: “Sepsis is one of Europe’s biggest preventable killers, yet we still do not have a coordinated European approach to tackling it. Ireland’s EU Presidency gives us an opportunity to change that.

“We want to put sepsis firmly on the European political agenda and build a commitment that extends beyond Ireland’s Presidency, because this is a health equity issue: where someone lives in Europe should not determine their chances of surviving sepsis.”

Professor Evangelos J. Giamarellos-Bourboulis, Chair of the European Sepsis Alliance, said: "The toll of sepsis on European patients and families is similar to the one of cancer. At least 680,000 lives are lost every year across the EU alone, and disparities in quality of care have been documented in the European Sepsis Care Survey, which shows a situation in Europe that no civilised health system should accept. The policy response is still lagging behind, in stark contrast to the scale of the crisis.

“Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union gives us an unprecedented opportunity to break that silence and build the political foundation for a European Sepsis Plan. Together with the incoming Lithuanian and Greek Presidencies, we intend to ensure that the momentum generated in Dublin does not stop at the end of Ireland's term, but carries through the entire Presidency trio and translates into a durable, coordinated European framework that every patient in every Member State can benefit from.”

The condition affects around 47 to 50 million people around the world each year, and results in at least 11 million deaths.