BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 18 /PRNewswire/AsiaNet/-- Bayer AG announced today plans to establish an International Sepsis Forum dedicated to improving the awareness, understanding and clinical management of sepsis and septic shock. Claiming in excess of 200,000 lives each year in the United States alone, septic shock is one of the most common causes of death in hospital intensive care units worldwide. The establishment of the International Sepsis Forum (ISF) was announced at the 17th Annual International Symposium of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (ISICEM) by Professor Jean-Louis Vincent, MD, PhD, Chairman of the ISICEM and Clinical Director of Intensive Care at the Erasme University Hospital, Free University in Brussels. The ISICEM is being held March 18-21 at the Congress Center in Brussels. The ISF will be supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Bayer AG. Directed by an independent Steering Committee made up of international experts on sepsis and its treatment, the ISF will sponsor lectures and symposia and issue a series of publications on sepsis and septic shock management. Additionally, the ISF will develop educational materials to keep physicians and other medical personnel up-to-date on the latest developments relating to the number one infectious killer in intensive care units. "The establishment of this Forum is precisely what we have needed for some time in order to more successfully coordinate the worldwide battle against sepsis," said Professor Vincent, who serves as a member of the ISF Steering Committee. Sepsis is the medical term for a life-threatening, systemic reaction to infection, and its symptoms include elevated temperature, heart rate and respiration. Unless successfully treated, sepsis progresses to septic shock, organ failure, and death. The incidence of sepsis and septic shock has risen substantially in the last decade due to an increase in the number of susceptible individuals including surgical patients, the elderly, AIDS patients, organ transplant recipients, and other immune compromised patients. Although newer antibiotics and intensive care technologies have been helpful in the management of septic shock, death rates have changed little in the past 20 years. Those that survive, generally require about two weeks of intensive-care hospitalization, at a cost of more than $5 billion per year in the United States alone. "The ISF represents a commitment to saving lives," said Gordon Bernard, MD, Chairman of the ISF Steering Committee. "The primary goal of the Forum is to achieve international consensus on key scientific research and clinical issues in sepsis treatment, and to develop practical treatment guidelines for those treating sepsis patients." Dr. Bernard, an internationally renowned expert on sepsis, is Professor of Medicine and Director, Medical Intensive Care Unit, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, in Nashville, Tennessee. "We expect that the ISF will provide resources and support for new ideas that will help shape the future of the treatment and management of sepsis and septic shock," said Professor Dr. Dieter Maruhn, Head of Anti- Infectives Product Development at Bayer. Professor Maruhn also noted that Bayer was among the companies at the forefront of sepsis research and has a promising septic shock treatment in clinical trials. If that treatment is found to be successful, there will be ethical, socio-economic, and treatment issues related to its use which a group such as the ISF will be uniquely situated to deal with. "We will need guidance on these delicate issues and we believe that the ISF, led by Dr. Bernard and other leaders in the field, is the body to provide that guidance to Bayer," Maruhn said. Bayer is an international research-based company with major businesses in life sciences, chemicals and imaging technology. With 142,000 employees worldwide, Bayer recorded a global earnings of DM 2.7 billion after tax on sales of DM 48.6 billion in 1996. SOURCE Bayer AG -0- 3/18/97 /CONTACT: Dr. Michael Diehl of Bayer AG, Corporate Communications, Leverkusen, Germany, + 49-214-30-8532; or Don Hyman of Bayer Corporation, Corporate Communications, West Haven, Conn., 203-812-6545; or Mary Sofield, of Chandler Chicco Agency, New York, 212-274-1110, ext. 104/