Prolonged episodes of sepsis can lead to the reactivation of viruses that were laying dormant in patients, suggesting that the immune system is suppressed and a change in treatment could be beneficial, according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Researchers performed studies on 560 critically ill patients with sepsis at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis and compared results from 161 critically ill patients without sepsis and 164 healthy outpatient surgery patients, to detect viruses in their bloodstream.
Patients with sepsis had much higher levels of viruses in their blood compared to the groups without sepsis.
"The finding that critically ill patients with sepsis have a number of different viruses circulating in the bloodstream is compelling evidence they are immune-suppressed and dramatically could alter therapy for sepsis," co-senior author Gregory Storch, MD, a virologist and chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, said in a report.
If the immune system is suppressed, sepsis patients could be unable to fight off other infections, like ventilator-associated pneumonia. Therefore, sepsis patients may benefit from immunotherapy drugs being incorporated into their treatment.
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