Today is the second annual World Sepsis Day, led by seven international federations and 43 national organizations comprising the Global Sepsis Alliance.
The Global Sepsis Alliance, which represents more than 600,000 physicians, nurses and allied healthcare workers, aims to reduce the incidence and mortality of sepsis by 20 percent by the year 2020. Here are 10 facts on sepsis from the Global Sepsis Alliance.
• Globally, an estimated 20 million to 30 million cases of sepsis occur each year.
• Sepsis is the primary cause of death from infection.
• Sepsis causes more deaths than prostate cancer, breast cancer and HIV/AIDS combined.
• In the developing world, sepsis accounts for 60 to 80 percent of lost lives per year in childhood.
• Patients surviving sepsis have twice the risk of death in the subsequent five years compared with hospitalized controls.
• Rapid intervention for sepsis can halve the risk of dying.
• Hospitalizations for sepsis have more than doubled over the last 10 years.
• The incidence of sepsis developing after surgery tripled from 1997 to 2006.
• In 2008, hospitalizations for sepsis in the United States cost an estimated $14.6 billion.
• Each year from 1997 through 2008, the inflation-adjusted total costs for treating patients hospitalized for sepsis increased 11.9 percent on average.
More Articles on Sepsis:
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Henry Ford Hospital's Sepsis Protocol Becomes National Standard