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. 2025 Jul 1:13:1575502.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1575502. eCollection 2025.

Be-SNAP: the Belgian Sepsis National Action Plan

Annelies Mondelaers #  1   2 , Febe Van de Voorde #  3 , Harlinde Peperstraete  4 , Ken Dewitte  5 , Jan De Waele  4 , Ilse Malfait  6 , Patrick Van de Voorde  7 , Erika Vlieghe  1   2
Affiliations

Be-SNAP: the Belgian Sepsis National Action Plan

Annelies Mondelaers et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Sepsis represents a significant healthcare challenge in Belgium with an estimated 40,952 cases annually (95% CI 31,938-54,451). This life-threatening condition leads to approximately 7,675 premature deaths per year (95% CI 6,421-9,089) and a loss of 38,106 quality-adjusted life years. The economic impact is substantial with annual costs ranging from €277 million to €4.3 billion. Despite this impact, Belgium lacks a national sepsis plan until present date. Following requests from diverse professional and patient organizations yielding public and political attention, the federal minister of Health requested a scientific advice to be written (November 2023-May 2024), as a basis for a national sepsis plan. This article describes Belgium's approach to developing a National Sepsis Action Plan, highlighting evidence-based and contextualized key recommendations aimed at reducing the sepsis burden by building on existing initiatives. A multidisciplinary working group was established, including representatives of healthcare workers and professional societies representing relevant disciplines in first, second and tertiary health care settings, home care and long-term care facilities. In addition, input was sought from public health actors and experts (e.g., surveillance, vaccination programs) and patient organizations. A Haddon matrix was made and seven key topics were specified: (1) awareness, (2) prevention, (3) early warning, (4) patient management, (5) post-sepsis rehabilitation, (6) advanced care planning and (7) surveillance and research. For each item, core group members were defined. Each group conducted literature reviews and developed recommendations tailored to the Belgian healthcare system, with consensus achieved during plenary sessions. The final document was externally reviewed by national and international experts. This is the first document addressing comprehensively sepsis prevention and care in Belgium, in its diverse presentations across the community and healthcare system. The next critical steps will involve the establishment of an implementation team and design of a detailed implementation plan.

Keywords: advance care planning; antimicrobial stewardship; early warning; infection prevention and control; public health; rapid response; rehabilitation; sepsis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Haddon matrix for sepsis as a public health problem. For each item, core group members also defined how far these were prone to action (more color = more prone).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Seven key topics of the Belgian sepsis national action plan.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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