Many people wrongly believe that sepsis is less deadly than breast cancer, research reveals

Nov 14 2016

Most people do not know how deadly sepsis is, with four out offive wrongly believing the condition is less deadly than breast cancer, according to the latest research.

A survey by Negligence Claimline asked people to rate which disease they thought was responsible for the most deaths each year out of breast cancer, leukaemia, meningitisand pneumonia. Only one in five people correctly named sepsis as the biggest killer. A total of 25% placed breast cancer at the top of the list despite the fact that sepsis is three times as deadly as breast cancer.

An estimated 37,000 people die each year in the UK due to sepsis whereas only 11,433 die of breast cancer. The condition, which normally presents as blood poisoning, is triggered by infection or injury.

Sepsis is the UK’s second biggest killer, having overtaken lung cancer in 2015. Coronary heart disease is the most deadly condition causing almost 74,000 deaths per year.

On top of this, only 26% of people could identify three symptoms of sepsis. When asked about three symptoms of sepsis, over half of people wrongly identified them as signs of stroke, indicating a distinct lack of awareness about sepsis amongst the general population.

Victoria Cobley, Marketing Manager at Negligence Claimline, commented:

Sepsis is a really serious condition, and can often be life threatening. This research showed us that more needs to be done to help people understand how dangerous sepsis is, and more importantly how to spot it.

Source: http://www.negligenceclaimline.co.uk/