Child sepsis fatality rate improving

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Dutch researchers found the fatality rate from sepsis -- blood poisoning -- and purpura -- bleeding underneath the skin -- in children and teens was 16 percent.

Jan Hazelzet and colleagues at the Erasmus MC-Sophia Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, analyzed 300 children admitted with sepsis and purpura from 1988 to 2006.

However, during the study period, the researchers observed a marked improvement in the numbers of children surviving sepsis, nevertheless, younger children were affected more severely and fatality rate was higher -- 4.3 times -- for those under the age of 3.

They was no difference in fatality rates between boys and girls, but boys were admitted to intensive care for longer periods and had more severe symptoms.

The study, published in the journal Critical Care, has been a marked reduction in the use of dopamine and an increase in the use of dobutamine, norepinephrine and corticosteroids to treat sepsis.

Sepsis is a serious medical condition triggered by infection, which leads to body-wide inflammation, fever, increased pulse and breathing, and potentially organ failure and death.