Sepsis: What you should know

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Sepsis: What you should know

The Sepsis page from CDC identifies what you should know about severe sepsis. Written for lay people. Over 1.7 million people in the US get sepsis each year, with about 270,000 deaths from it annually. Death rates are high. CDC estimates that 1 in 3 in-hospital deaths are due to sepsis. Click Educational Information to find more resources for patients and families.

In a 2014 study of nearly 174,000 sepsis patients, linked at the site, hospital mortality was 25.5% among patients with hospital-onset sepsis, compared to 13.4% for patients with sepsis present on admission. The adjusted in-hospital mortality rate was 15.6%. Death rates for septic patients were higher for older patients, men, teaching hospitals, and larger hospital. [Rhee, et al., published online by JAMA, September 2017]