News: Sepsis likely to blame for 20% of worldwide deaths, study shows

A new study estimates that sepsis is at least partially responsible for roughly 11 million global deaths in 2017 out of 56 million total deaths. This means sepsis was at least partially responsible for 20% of the worldwide deaths that year. Undertaken by a dozen collaborators at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Washington, the study analyzed more than 100 million death certificates dated from 1990 to 2007. Annually, sepsis is responsible for an estimated 27,000 deaths in the U.S. alone, according to the study.

Sepsis poses an even  larger problem in the developing world, with childbearing women at the greatest risk. These women can develop an infection after giving birth or having a C-section; this infection can trigger sepsis because they don’t have access to appropriate obstetric care, according to the study’s authors.

Researchers noted that sepsis is not easy to study, in part because doctors might not think to include it as a cause of death or contributing factor on a death certificate. This means, according to the researchers, that the study’s results may be on the conservative side.

However, the study also documents major reductions in sepsis since 1990, dropping by about half. This decline seems consistent with worldwide effort to improve public heath such a clean drinking water, sanitation infrastructure, development of vaccines, and effective antibiotics.

There is still much room for improvement in these efforts, as well as a need for more effective sepsis treatments, according to the study authors.

Editor’s note: The original study was published in the Lancet. Recent ACDIS articles on sepsis can be found here and here.