Long-term ill health in sepsis survivors: An ignored healthcare challenge?

Initiated by the Global Sepsis Alliance in 2012, September 13th every year is denoted as World Sepsis Day. Sepsis remains a global healthcare problem, affecting all age groups. The extrapolated annual incidence of ~49 million cases (with ~20 million cases in children under 5-years of age) and 11 million deaths, generates ~38 million sepsis survivors per year1. There is tacit acknowledgement that sepsis survivorship is a major cause of health loss globally. However, currently, no healthcare system globally (including the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS)), can claim to have a structured approach to improving sepsis survivorship to all those who recover from an index sepsis episode. It is in this context that we provide an overview of domains of long-term ill health in sepsis survivors, highlight illustrative knowledge gaps and the need for a structured approach to improve sepsis survivorship.