Giving Compass' Take:

• Two new studies are underway to test the effectiveness of a cocktail of vitamins and steroids for curing sepsis, which currently has no proven cure.

• How can philanthropy best support scientific breakthroughs for deadly diseases? How can donors help the spread and adoption of proven methods of treatment? 

• Learn about innovative financing for global health problems.

Scientists have launched two large studies to test a medical treatment that, if proven effective, could have an enormous impact on the leading cause of death in American hospitals.

The treatment is aimed at sepsis, a condition in which the body's inflammatory response rages out of control in reaction to an infection, often leading to organ damage or failure. There's no proven cure for sepsis, which strikes well over 1 million Americans a year and kills more than 700 a day.

The treatment is a cocktail of intravenous vitamin C, vitamin B1 (thiamine) and corticosteroids. The use of vitamin C in sepsis was pioneered by Dr. Alpha Fowler at Virginia Commonwealth University. Marik has been using the combination treatment since 2016 at his hospital in Norfolk, Va., where he also teaches at the Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Some other doctors around the nation have also been trying it on their patients, but most are waiting for hard science to decide whether Marik's experience is just a fluke.

That evidence could come from two large studies now underway in the United States. Both are being conducted according to the gold standard of medical science: Some patients get the treatment, others get a placebo, and neither the patients nor doctors know who gets what.

Read the full article about testing a cure for sepsis by Richard Harris at NPR.