In the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance, Sepsis, and its Underlying Causes
In 2020, Sepsis Alliance began deepening its involvement in the area of sepsis care equity, in order to address the staggering disparities in sepsis awareness, incidence, treatment access, and outcomes along racial and ethnic lines. Native American patients are 2.39 times more likely to be readmitted following a sepsis hospitalization than white patients, for example; Hispanic individuals experience 1.1 times the rate of severe sepsis as compared to white individuals; and Black individuals bear nearly twice the burden of sepsis deaths, relative to the size of the Black population, as compared to white individuals. What’s more, drug-resistant infections—from which 700,000 people die annually, and which pose a growing threat to sepsis prevention and treatment—also disproportionately impact populations of color. For instance, in the U.S., Black patients are twice as likely to die from severe infections driven by antibiotic resistance as compared to white patients. Many of these deaths are sepsis deaths.
We developed an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) pledge to help close these gaps, augment our mission statement, and continue making good on our initial and enduring promise: to reduce the suffering caused by sepsis. We see this as a vital step toward becoming a more equitable and capable health sector organization. It is also only a preliminary step, the beginning of more expansive work in this sphere in the years to come.
Sepsis Alliance now invites our partners who work to mitigate the global challenges associated with AMR, sepsis, or its underlying causes (including bacterial infections, fungal infections, parasitic infections, and viral infections like COVID-19), to join us. The need to foster health equity within these areas is great and warrants our significant attention and action, in everything from infectious disease research to vaccine distribution to sepsis care advocacy.
Those of us in this fight must ensure better, more culturally competent, and more accessible healthcare for all people. Below, signatories can pledge their commitment to this effort. They will then have the opportunity to develop a plan for actionable and sustainable changes, and to report on their progress.
This is a critical, life-saving fight; we hope you’ll join us by pledging your commitment below.
(SIGNATORY) commits to helping reduce health disparities, such as racial and ethnic disparities, as they relate to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), sepsis, or its underlying causes.
(SIGNATORY) pledges to help mitigate the impacts of AMR, sepsis, or its underlying causes on disproportionately affected communities by making actionable and sustainable changes in the area(s) most applicable to its work.
(SIGNATORY), as part of the larger health sector, acknowledges its shared responsibility for helping to improve healthcare for all people.
Sepsis Alliance gratefully acknowledges support from Pfizer for the creation of this pledge.
In order to be considered a pledge partner and to remain so, signatories will be expected to:
- Fill out the preliminary form below, pledging your commitment to fostering EDI;
- Reply to the follow-up email that will come from Sepsis Alliance (pledge@sepsis.org) in the next few business days, providing us with further information about how you will be enacting the pledge (Sepsis Alliance will not share this information without prior approval);
- Follow up with Sepsis Alliance to report on equity progress (Sepsis Alliance will not share this information without prior approval).