When I qualified as a doctor in 1990, no one died of sepsis. Derived from the Greek verb “to make rotten”, back then it simply meant the presence of pus-forming bacteria such as one might find in an abscess. Pneumonia or peritonitis were infections that people died from – but sepsis didn’t kill; it wasn’t even a disease.
Fast-forward 30 years and, according to a new study from the University of Washington that was widely reported in the media, sepsis is now responsible for one in five deaths worldwide, making it more lethal than cancer.
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