Sepsis Is the Killer You Probably Don't Know About

Sepsis is always an emergency. But I bet many of you reading this don't know what it is. 

TheCDC says there are over one million cases of sepsis in America annually-- many more globally -- and about 258,000 of those people die from it. It's the ninth leading cause of disease-related deaths and more people are hospitalized for sepsis every year than for heart disease and stroke combined. It's a major driver behind higher health costs.

A minor infection from a cut on your knee, a tooth abscess or a more serious infection like pneumonia or appendicitis usually triggers your body's defensives to attack the invader and get rid of it. In some cases, that healthy response can turn deadly when our immune system goes into overdrive. This is sepsis and it's a killer if not caught and treated quickly, which is hard to do if we don't know about it. 

It turns out, one of the cheapest and easiest things we can do to prevent some of the infections that can lead to sepsis is to wash our hands.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Ulysses Wu - Section Chief of Infectious Disease, St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Connecticut 
• Leah Ginnivan - Medical student, writer, and health policy researcher 
• Carl Flatley - Retired endodontist, founder of  Sepsis Alliance; his 26-year-old daughter died of sepsis after a minor surgical procedure
• Ciaran Staunton - Co-founder of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform; he and his wife started the Rory Staunton Foundationafter their 12-year-old son died from sepsis

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Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Greg Hill contributed to this show.