Imagine a mother in rural Uganda, moments after giving birth, her life hanging in the balance from a preventable infection. Every 30 minutes, a woman worldwide dies from maternal sepsis—the silent killer striking hardest in low-resource settings like ours. Now, groundbreaking results from the APT-Sepsis trial, led by the University of Liverpool with partners including Makerere University College of Health Sciences, the Infectious Diseases Institute, and the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust, prove that a simple, sustainable intervention can reduce these tragedies by 32%.

Across 59 sites in Uganda and Malawi, involving over 430,000 women, healthcare teams empowered by local "champions" rolled out three proven pillars: rigorous hand hygiene, evidence-based caesarean prep with antibiotics and vaginal cleaning, and vigilant monitoring via charts triggering rapid sepsis bundles— all drawn from WHO and Ugandan guidelines but supercharged through hands-on ownership. Control sites stuck to standard care, but the intervention shone, cutting infection-related deaths and severe morbidity consistently across facility levels, with effects strengthening over the 12-month rollout to a 47% peak.

This cluster-randomized trial, conducted in Uganda in partnership with the Ministry of Health and with daily data vigilance from on-site officers, demands action: embed APT-Sepsis into policy now for lasting maternal safety.

Key Resources
Read the results here:
journal article (results): A Multicomponent Intervention to Improve Maternal Infection Outcomes
Link to the supplementary materials: nejmoa2512698_appendix.pdf
Visit the Website: APT-Sepsis - Proven Program to Prevent Maternal Sepsis
Review the YouTube video resources playlist: APT-Sepsis - YouTube