Sepsis Canada

Diagnosing sepsis in babies is extremely challenging. At the Annual AMR Symposium hosted by bioMérieux, Dr. Amy Lee and Dr. Pacios-Santamaria presented two Canadian projects that are working to change that.

Here is the issue:

An effective diagnostic tool for sepsis is bacterial culturing, but:

🔴 80% of babies with suspected sepsis are culture negative

🔴 In low-resource settings, blood cultures are not even available

This often leaves little choice but to use first-line antibiotics, yet:

🔴 95% of neonatal sepsis isolates (gram-negative bacteria) from Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia are resistant to one such antibiotics, Ampicillin

What is being done to tackle this issue?

Researchers led by Dr. Amy Lee and Dr. Pascal Lavoie at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute are developing rapid molecular tests using omics and machine-learning, with the aim of:

🟢 Identifying which babies truly need antibiotics

🟢 Developing an easy-to-use diagnostic tool to guide treatment worldwide

Additionally, the AVENGER initiative, directed by Dr. Pieter Cullis and Dr. Anna Blakney, is building a national RNA vaccine platform that hopes to develop next-generation vaccines in under 100 days and aims to enable:

🟢 Custom-designed RNA vaccines for viral and bacterial threats

🟢 New vaccine candidates targeting AMR bacteria

🟢 A pathway to innovative drugs that treat previously incurable diseases

These initiatives are critical for treating sepsis across all ages, but for newborns facing the fewest options, the impact could be significant!