In 2017, one in five people worldwide died from sepsis. This underestimated disease kills more than cancer.
Until now we thought that cancer was the leading cause of death worldwide after cardiovascular disease. However, a third underestimated condition now slips between the two:sepsis .
Sepsis is a widespread and uncontrolled inflammation of the body which responds to a first infection . This can be cutaneous, pulmonary or urinary, for example, caused by a bacterium or a virus. This inflammation can then disrupt blood circulation, lead to organ failure or even a dangerous drop in blood pressure. The most fragile (elderly people and children) are usually the most affected.
So far, we thought about five million people worldwide succumbed to this disease. However, these estimates were grossly underestimated. “Sepsis is generally considered an intermediate rather than an underlying cause of death write the researchers in the study. "That's why it wasn't properly considered .
For this work, the researchers accessed the medical records of millions of people in 195 countries, focusing on 282 underlying causes of death . They then sought to calculate the impact of sepsis in each death. This data only concerned the year 2017. It emerged that in that year, 49 million people worldwide developed sepsis. In addition, eleven million died of it .
These results therefore double the number of estimated deaths from sepsis and place this disease in the second rank of deadliest in the world , ahead of cancer, which kills around 9.6 million people each year.
It also emerged that more than half of sepsis cases in 2017 occurred in children . On the other hand, the most common underlying causes were diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections and maternal disorders (infections after childbirth).
Researchers also point out that in many cases, especially in developing countries, these deaths "could have been prevented with better access to vaccines (for reduce the risk of early infections), improved sanitation and adequate nutrition for children and mothers .
However, while around 85% of sepsis deaths occurred in low-income countries, the researchers note that more developed countries also need to make efforts, especially by reducing the risk of nosocomial infections. We note in passing that septicemia (or sepsis) claims approximately 30,000 victims in France each year.
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