A few days ago we show you the consequences of a meningitis infection in a young woman, after suffering a sepsis as a result of the infection. He was close to not telling it, and it is that sepsis is a complication of infections that makes the life of the person or child in danger.
Now comes good news in this regard, an advance that will certainly be welcome: a new blood test that you can detect if there is a sepsis in just five minutes.
The test has recently been passed in Europe
As we read in DailyMail, the analysis has been approved for use in Europe and some hospitals in the United Kingdom already value the possibility of starting to use it in the next year, in order to advance treatments in such a complex condition.
A sepsis, as we have explained on other occasions, is the consequence of a serious infection. As synonyms, or to explain the word, we talk about "blood poisoning" or of the "decomposition" or "rot" of it. It would be something like the toxic response that the body itself generates when it is the victim of an infection, and it is a very serious complication.
In the United Kingdom, it is estimated that about 150,000 people develop sepsis each year, of which 44,000 end up dying.
Now this analysis aims to start treatment earlier, to increase the chances of survival.
The sooner the treatment is started, the better
An infection that results in a sepsis can be treated with an antibiotic, but the treatment should be started as soon as possible, so that the infection, the sepsis is stopped, and the least possible damage to the person's organs occurs.
Currently, to know if there is a sepsis, blood tests are performed to see if certain values are affected, and the sample is cultured to have a definitive response approximately three days later. Since this is a long time, what is usually done is to start the antibiotic as soon as the diagnosis is suspected; However, a rapid test would help confirm this diagnosis much earlier.
That test is called abioSCOPE, and consists of a machine the size of a coffee maker where a drop of blood from the patient is introduced, with a liquid. Five minutes later, a result is achieved with which to know what the extent of the infection is, and if there is sepsis, long before the usual blood test.
A great help for younger babies
I think of babies and I can't help doing it in infections like those caused by meningitis bacteria. In the case of babies, as they often get sick and many times they have a fever for viruses and more or less controllable bacteria, when meningitis is suspected it is sometimes too late, because it advances rapidly and sepsis becomes too much for the available treatments (I also remember the case of the 2-year-old girl who failed to overcome a meningitis B).
Well, in children so young, in whom the disease progresses rapidly, such a test could make the difference between life and death, because treatments could be started much earlier.
Now we just have to start being available in hospitals so that everyone can benefit from this progress.
Photos | iStock
In Babies and more | A seven-year-old boy dies when his parents decide to pray for him and go to a wedding and avoid doctors, a 13-month-old baby dies of meningitis B and the vaccine is not yet available to all, A 4-year-old boy dies for a complication derived from chickenpox
