Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I highlight the global health crisis of septicaemia and sepsis which affects approximately 30 million people every year across the world and kills 9 million. In Ireland 3,000 people die from sepsis each year. It claims more lives than heart attack, breast cancer or lung cancer. It can kill a person within 12 hours, as the parents of Sean Hughes from Finglas, Joe and Karen, know all about. Sean was only 15 years old when he suddenly lost consciousness while watching television with his mother and recovering from a simple flu-like illness. Despite the best efforts of his father and paramedics to resuscitate him, he died later in Temple Street Hospital. His parents are calling for a nationwide awareness campaign to highlight the signs and symptoms of sepsis. I support them and hope I will get the support of the House in that regard also. Sean’s parents want the HSE and health professionals to formulate new protocols for the diagnosis of sepsis and the procedures used because it is important to pick up and treat this killer disease as soon as possible. It is being missed and people are dying unnecessarily. Karen and Joe did not know what sepsis was and are not alone. According to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, it is estimated that only 28% of Irish people have an accurate understanding of what sepsis is. When one presents at an outpatients department or a GP’s surgery, one often sees literature on public information campaigns such as the campaign on meningitis and the FAST campaign on the signs and symptoms of stroke. There is a need for a similar campaign to educate people about sepsis. A similar check list must be created to the ones featured in other campaigns. Sepsis can occur quickly. While one’s immune system normally fights infection, it sometimes fails and people experience multi-organ failure and die as a result of sepsis. However, if it is diagnosed early, t can be treated easily with antibiotics. Anyone, however young and healthy, is at risk of dying from sepsis. World Sepsis Day is 13 September. It is time to treat this issue with the seriousness it demands. We must ensure people are aware of what sepsis is, understand the risk factors and know how to combat it. By 13 September every household in the country should have been made aware of a disease which kills more Irish people than heart attack, breast cancer and lung cancer. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on the issue in the near future.