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Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
Sepsis: The Killer Disease You Haven't Heard About
There are a few killer diseases that are constantly on the prowl but catch the world’s attention once in a year or so; often when their designated day comes up. Sepsis is the best example. World Sepsis Day came and went last week and everyone who is anyone agrees that it is the “killer disease you have never heard of”.
And then everyone forgets about it.
Even conservative estimates say the annual death toll of Sepsis is nearly six million worldwide. Sepsis, whether the world wants to acknowledge or not, is a life-threatening disease. According to this article, in the UK alone, Sepsis causes more deaths than bowel, breast and prostate cancer combined. And yet, a recent survey found nearly 44 per cent of people in Britain had never heard of the disease, let alone know that it can be (and usually is) fatal.
Despite all these statistics, Sepsis remains a mystery that needn't be one. So much so that even the WHO had to expressly declare Sepsis to be a “global health priority” and adopt a resolution to improve its prevention, diagnosis and management.
This piece sheds some light on why exactly the disease “flows beneath the radar”. Sepsis can affect any organ and result in a wide variety of symptoms. The very young and the elderly are most at risk as are individuals with an inherited risk or any pre-existing medical condition. One of the major reasons for the prevailing confusion about the disease is inaccurate death certificates — often caregivers are clueless that Sepsis is the cause of death as the patient would have been admitted initially for perhaps a chest infection or pneumonia. The third issue is one of terminology. A range of terms including ‘blood poisoning’ to ‘septicaemia’ are used to describe the same condition, thus diffusing attention.
The biggest challenge today is not only to spread awareness about the disease but also to speed up its identification and treatment, both of which have remained pretty much stagnant for more than 50 years now.
