Niranjan Kissoon describes himself as an “eternal optimist”. And he has to be. Every day, his work requires him to bear witness to some of the most difficult health circumstances in the world, and to continue fighting to make a difference.
But for Kissoon, an internationally renowned paediatric critical care expert who currently serves as the President of the Global Sepsis Alliance and has now been conferred the Doctor of Science (DSc) from The UWI St Augustine, there is no question of whether this is the path he should take.
“I just do it,” he says with a laugh.
“I came from a pretty poor background — a modest background — from Cunupia,” says Kissoon. A career in medicine took him to Jamaica, and then later to Canada, where he focused on paediatrics, and paediatric emergency and critical care. But he never forgot where he came from.
“In the back of my mind, I had this little feeling... this is a very rich country. Intensive care and emergency care here are very expensive resources, but I was aware that in many parts of the world, there are no facilities or resources available to most patients.”
One of the ripple effects on a lack of healthcare resources is an increase in infections— and sepsis. “I knew that infections and sepsis were the number one killer in the world of children,” he says. “So, I decided to plant my flag there.”
He wanted to help provide better care to the people who needed it the most. This was the genesis of the Global Sepsis Alliance, born out of an understanding that the issue was greater than one country, or one society.
Since sepsis does not have one singular cause and is a condition where the body begins to shut down in an extreme response to an infection, it is a higher risk in places where resources are scarce—where, for example, patients may need to wait longer to receive care due to understaffing, or where malnutrition is widespread. There are a host of risk factors that come from an overall lack of resources. It’s not simply a health issue, but an overarching issue of equity. And for Kissoon, his passion stems from a personal place. says.“The issue of the dehumanising effect of poverty... those things have never left me,” he says.
Now, he works with organisations around the world, as well as mentors the next generation of doctors to approach these issues from a more holistic perspective.
So, what still needs to be done?
“You have to fight the disease in the corridors of authority and power to get the funding to fight it on the bedside,” he says. “Through the Global Sepsis Alliance and the branch, the African Sepsis Alliance and the Caribbean Sepsis Alliance, we have been making great strides in advocacy to really bring it to the fore, that this is an important issue.”
He wants people to understand that anyone can get sepsis, and the factors that make the most widespread difference are knowledge and resources. It’s an issue that connects and affects us all.
“We have to think about the planet globally,” says Kissoon. And as global citizens, we must see it as our responsibility to ensure all children have the right to better healthcare.
