It’s the third leading cause of death in the US, killing more people than dementia and afflicting as many as cancer.
Yet millions of Americans have never heard of it.
That’s why sepsis has been dubbed a ‘silent killer.’ It happens when the body over-reacts to an infection, sending the immune system haywire and violently attacking healthy tissue.
Another reason for its moniker is that it often starts with seemingly benign symptoms – a fever, tiredness, and shortness of breath, to name a few.
But within hours, it can lead to multi-organ failure, heart attacks, and amputations.
Now, new CDC data has found that the condition is on a small but notable rise, with South and Appalachia most vulnerable, as well as wealthy states along the east coast areas.
The latest sepsis data from the CDC has shown a slight uptick in sepsis deaths in the last three months, which experts warn could be due to a lack of cohesive sepsis strategy in the US
Sepsis can affect patients of any age, including three-year-old Beauden Baumkitchner, who had both legs amputated after he scraped his knee and contracted staph bacteria
The data, from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, looked at death rates from sepsis from late 2022 to 2024.
Overall, sepsis deaths have shown a slight uptick, increasing from 9.3 cases per 100,000 to 10.3 cases per 100,000, just under a one percent rise.
From 2022 to 2024, men consistently were more likely to die from sepsis, with a death rate of 11.5 per 100,000 in Q1 2024 compared to 9.4 per 100,000 in women.
Most age groups remained steady over the past two years, but those ages 85 and older saw a spike from 141 per 100,000 in Q3 2023 to 166 per 100,000 so far in 2024.
As of the first quarter of 2024, southern and Appalachian states had the highest numbers of sepsis deaths. Louisiana recorded the most, with 18 per 100,000, followed closely by Kentucky and Arkansas at 17 per 100,000.
While these states are historically prone to chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cancer, all of which are risk factors for sepsis, wealthier states along the east coast also recorded higher numbers of sepsis cases.
New Jersey, for example, has a sepsis death rate of 16 per 100,000, with Maryland and Pennsylvania following close behind at 14 and 13 per 100,000, respectively.
According to the CDC, men have consistently been more likely to die from sepsis compared to women
The above map shows the average death rates for sepsis in each US state per 100,000 people
Experts have suggested that a steady rise in the condition, which causes the immune system to overreact to an infection and attack healthy organs, could be due to a lack of cohesive care in the US.
Unlike the UK, Australia, and several other countries, the US does not have a national sepsis protocol. In fact, 2023 CDC data found that more than 1,400 hospitals – about one-quarter – in the US do not have a sepsis program whatsoever.
And of those, just over half provide staff dedicated time to focus on developing sepsis protocol.
However, the new CDC data does show that the amount of hospitals with a sepsis program increased from 73 percent to 78 percent from 2022 to 2023.
‘Doctors are not provided with enough information to help them to diagnose sepsis,’ Dr Steven Simpson, Professor of Medicine at the University of Kansas and Chair of nonprofit Sepsis Alliance, previously told DailyMail.com.
‘There’s no catchy phrase to help doctors and hospitals look out for it, like they have in other countries.
‘Every hospital in the country should have a sepsis committee, a sepsis quality improvement program and organize their facility so it is primed to spot and treat sepsis. Currently, this is absolutely not the case.’
Sepsis affects more than 1.7million Americans every year. That’s comparable to cancer, which is diagnosed in 1.9million people and also on the rise throughout the US.
Sepsis kills more than 350,000 every year, or one person every 90 seconds. Only cancer and heart disease kill more in the US, with 600,000 and 700,000 deaths, respectively.
While those diseases mostly affect elderly populations, what makes sepsis so frightening is that it can affect anyone.
People ages 65 and older tend to be the most vulnerable, though about 75,000 patients every year are under 18.
It’s also the leading cause of hospital death, accounting for one in three.
According to Sepsis Alliance, sepsis claims more lives ‘than those who die from stroke, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and opioid overdose combined.’
Around the world, the condition accounts for one in five deaths – 20 every minute – and outnumbers cancer.
But despite how terrifyingly common the condition has become, one in three Americans has never even heard of it, Sepsis Alliance found.
And sepsis is not even included in the CDC’s ‘Leading Causes of Death’ list, though it’s unclear why.
The following chart shows that people ages 85 and older have shown the largest spike in sepsis deaths in the last two years
The majority of sepsis patients are over 85 years old, though it has been known to affect patients as young as infants
The lack of awareness can make it harder for patients to identify the condition and seek help immediately, sepsis survivor Don Smith previously told DailyMail.com.
Mr Smith, now 67, went into sepsis in 2017 after being infected with strep throat, unaware of the extreme reaction playing out in his body.
But within days, his foot became so swollen that he couldn’t get out of bed. He had several toes amputated, as they turned black from a lack of circulation.
Up until that point, he only had a vague idea of what sepsis is. And several other patients he has met have said that their doctors would only tell them ‘you were very sick’ instead of telling them they were septic.
‘Use the word sepsis. Tell people what it is and what it means because I had heard the word sepsis before, but I didn’t have the slightest idea what it was,’ Mr Smith said.
‘And I almost died from it. We need to get the word out so fewer people die.’
‘Use the word sepsis. Tell people what it is and what it means because I had heard the word sepsis before, but I didn’t have the slightest idea what it was,’ Mr Smith said. ‘And I almost died from it. We need to get the word out so fewer people die.’
Sepsis also carries the risk of repeated hospitalization, as it can cause permanent organ damage and other long-term effects. Chloe Cummings (left) and her mother Kimberly have both become septic about 18 times combined and are at constant risk of being hospitalized
Another danger is that sepsis can leave the body more vulnerable to repeated bouts – Sepsis Alliance, for instance, estimates that one-third of sepsis survivors end up back in the hospital within three months, usually due to repeated episodes.
In many patients, sepsis causes permanent damage to organs like the lungs, brain, and heart, which require long-term maintenance and can result in repeat hospitalizations.
A new study published this week in the American Journal of Critical Care, for instance, found that of 7,100 patients with sepsis, nearly one in four were readmitted to the hospital within 30 days.
Of those, two-thirds were due to repeated bouts of sepsis and nearly half were from infections.
Priscilla Hartley, study co-author and assistant professor of nursing at Augusta University in Georgia, said that for nine in 10 cases, readmission occurred in patients ‘considered well enough to be discharged home or to home health care.’
Chloe Cummings, 30, has gone into sepsis over a dozen times since she was an infant. Her mother previously told DailyMail.com that sepsis attacked her daughter’s bones, landing her in the hospital frequently because something as innocent as falling off a swing could result in a fracture or dislocation.
‘It’s just a reminder that you do not come away from this with unscathed,’ Ms Cummings said.
