Dr. Michael O'Dwyer:

The diagnosis is incredibly complicated. The gold standard test is a blood culture test. A sample of blood is taken and you look for bacteria within that blood culture. We know that in patients who almost definitely have sepsis, that is only positive in about 40% of cases and it takes 48 hours or so to become positive, so it is not of any use when the patient comes in the door. Then there is a combination of different blood tests to look at the patient's immune response that can give an indication that something is going on but it is not definitive for sepsis. I go to conferences every year and a new test comes out every year but it is never proven robust in big clinical trials. Like we have said earlier, the easiest thing is to give everybody antibiotics when they come in the door. We cannot do that because of emerging antimicrobial resistance and allergic and adverse reactions. The solution to the diagnosis issue has been sought for many years and we are getting closer. The diagnostics are better but they are nowhere near perfect.