COVER STORY: Saving lives by supporting the Sepsis Six

Like strokes or heart attacks, sepsis is a medical emergency that requires rapid diagnosis and treatment. Symptoms can be similar to those of flu and include severe breathlessness and a high fever. Sepsis can develop quickly from initial infection and progress to septic shock in as little as 12 to 24 hours. It is the final common pathway to death from most infectious diseases worldwide, including viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19.

Every year on September 13th, individuals and organisations around the world unite to educate and inform communities about the importance of early recognition and treatment of sepsis. According to the World Health Organization, sepsis is one of the most frequent causes of death worldwide. From data published in 2020, there were 48.9 million cases and 11 million sepsis-related deaths worldwide, representing 20% of all global deaths, and for every 1,000 hospitalised patients, an estimated 15 patients will develop sepsis as a complication of receiving healthcare. It is also very costly – the same data showed that the average hospital-wide cost of sepsis was estimated to be more than US$ 32,000 per patient in high-income countries.¹ 

Sepsis was in the UK news earlier this year when MP Craig Mackinlay revealed that his hands and feet had been amputated after a sepsis diagnosis. In the UK, sepsis affects more than 245,000 people every year, and one in five intensive care unit (ITU) admissions is due to severe sepsis. Of those 245,000 people, 48,000 will die due to sepsis-related illnesses. According to several studies the incidence of sepsis in the general population is increasing.^2,3