CDC Offers New Sepsis Fact Sheet

The CDC's sister agency, the National Institutes of Health, recently announced the findings of large clinical trial about sepsis. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that survival of patients with septic shock was the same regardless of whether they received treatment based on specific protocols or the usual high-level standard of care, according to a five-year clinical study. The large-scale randomized trial, named ProCESS for Protocolized Care for Early Septic Shock, was done in 31 academic hospital emergency departments across the country and was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a component of the National Institutes of Health.

According to the CDC, sepsis affects more than 800,000 Americans annually and is the ninth leading cause of disease-related deaths. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality lists sepsis as the most expensive condition treated in U.S. hospitals, costing more than $20 billion in 2011.