It started innocently enough. It was just a little cough. But by the time Jim went to bed that night, he had developed fever and chills, and then became too weak and dizzy to walk to the bathroom. He was lightheaded and confused. His wife called an ambulance, and by the time he arrived in the emergency room, his blood pressure was so low, his organs weren’t getting enough blood and oxygen. Jim was diagnosed with pneumonia, but this had evolved into septic shock. Jim and his family certainly knew pneumonia, but like most people, they had never heard of “severe sepsis” or “septic shock.”
This disease has quietly and surreptitiously become the most important disease hospitals face in the 21st century. Sepsis, the body’s response to severe and at times overwhelming infection, is now the number one disease in terms of hospital costs in the United States. More people will die of sepsis this year than breast cancer, prostate cancer, and HIV/AIDS combined. We are truly in the midst of a sepsis epidemic, with the number of patients admitted to the hospital with sepsis rising 10 percent per year, since 2000, more than doubling in seven years.
In spite of advances in treatment, due to the rapidly rising number of cases, there are now more people dying of this disease than ever before. There are many causes for this increase. Although sepsis can strike at any age, from newborns to adults, the elderly are at the highest risk, and they are also a rapidly growing segment of the population. Additionally, more and more treatments for various diseases involve immunologic, biologic, and chemotherapeutic agents, all of which suppress the immune system and increase the risk of infection. The "bugs" themselves are becoming more virulent and aggressive, and more resistant to antibiotics.