The results of a new study indicate that sepsis causes or at least contributes to about 20% of worldwide deaths every year.
The study, published in the Lancet, analyzed death certificates for more than 100 million deaths records in 2017. Researchers found that nearly 49 million incident cases of sepsis and 11 million sepsis-related deaths were recorded worldwide. This latter figure represents 19.7% of all global deaths recorded for the year.
As the study notes, the number of deaths attributable to sepsis (either as cause or contributing factor) is twice as high as previously believed. As the researchers state, "This striking increase is largely attributable to the far higher burden among people living in areas with a lower socio-demographic index (SDI), for whom data had previously been lacking. Nearly half of all sepsis-related deaths occur secondary to sepsis complicating an underlying injury or non-communicable disease. Our results … highlight the need for greater prevention and treatment of sepsis, particularly in areas of the world with the lowest SDI."
On a positive note, the number of global sepsis cases is on the decline. There were an estimated 60 million cases of sepsis in 1990.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that 1.7 million American adults develop sepsis and nearly 270,000 American die as the result of sepsis each year. One in three patients who die in a hospital have sepsis. It is the most common cause of in-hospital deaths.