Sepsis now bigger killer than cancer

Global death toll hits 11m a year ... double the previous estimate

SEPSIS is now a bigger killer around the world than cancer, a major study has found.

Researchers warned 11million globally died from the condition in 2017 – more than double the 5.3million estimated for 2016.

It means one in every five deaths is caused by sepsis, outstripping cancer, which is thought to cause 9.6million fatalities a year.

The findings, the result of a huge international study published in the Lancet medical journal, also showed there were 48.9million cases around the world in 2017, twice the previous estimate of 19.4million.

But while the authors said they were alarmed to see rates so high, their research shows cases of sepsis deaths have been falling overall over the past 30 years.

The researchers estimated there were 60.2million sepsis patients in 1990, which means it dropped by a fifth in three decades thanks to better medical treatment.

The study, led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Washington, looked at hospital records and data from across the world.

They wrote: ‘ We have produced global sepsis estimates that are more than double previous calculations, with 11million sepsis deaths and 48.9million incident sepsis cases in 2017.

‘We have shown a global trend of decreasing sepsis burden but, importantly, substantial differences between regions remain.

‘These differences by location are alarming and deserve urgent attention from the global health, research and policy communities.’

Sepsis, known as the ‘silent killer’, develops when an infection such as blood poisoning sparks a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs.

The condition is notoriously difficult to diagnose until it has engulfed the body.

If it is caught early, antibiotics can control the infection. But if doctors do not diagnose it early, there is little they can do to control its spread.

Yet awareness of it is poor, meaning it is often mistaken for more mild conditions.

The Mail launched the End the Sepsis Scandal campaign with the UK Sepsis Trust in January 2016 to raise awareness of symptoms among patients and staff.

The campaign was triggered by the death of 12-month-old William Mead in 2014 after a catalogue of errors, misdiagnoses and missed opportunities by doctors and NHS helpline staff. Although the global figures are much higher than previously thought, they confirm earlier estimates of the prevalence of sepsis in the UK.

It showed there are nearly 250,000 cases and 48,000 related deaths each year in this country – compared to previous estimates of 260,000 cases and 44,000 deaths.

It does, however, significantly increase the UK figure from the last time the Lancet estimated the numbers – when the journal put the incidence at 78,000 cases and 16,000 deaths in England.

In the UK cancer remains a much bigger killer, taking the lives of 165,000 people a year.

The ten countries with the highest death rates were all in Africa with the Central African Republic leading the study. Those with the lowest were mainly Middle Eastern and wealthier countries.

Dr Ron Daniels, head of The UK Sepsis Trust, said: ‘While not all deaths from sepsis are preventable through earlier intervention, this reinforces the call to UN member states to continue to implement national action plans.

‘If we don’t urgently take steps to slow antibiotic resistance and develop new agents, then even with improved healthcare this death toll may begin to rise.’

Researcher Dr Niranjan Kissoon of British Columbia Children’s Hospital in Canada said: ‘There are cost-effective measures that can be implemented such as adequate hand-washing, proper sanitation in hospitals, and better antibiotic stewardship.’

‘An antibiotic resistance threat’