Giving Compass' Take:

• A new report from the World Health Organization examines the dangerously overlooked, deadly effects of sepsis in communities worldwide.

• How might the impact of this understudied illness be especially critical during coronavirus?

• Read more about the widespread impact of sepsis across the planet.

Sepsis—the body's potentially deadly response to infection—causes 1 in 5 deaths worldwide, yet there are huge chasms in the knowledge base about it, WHO warns.

To address these gaps, a new WHO report implores the global community to double down to create a more coherent narrative around the burden of sepsis.

What’s known now?

  • Most sepsis research is conducted in high-income countries, yet the vast majority of cases occur in low-resource settings.
  • Children account for almost half of the 49 million annual cases worldwide.
  • Around half of patients with sepsis in intensive care units acquired the infection in the hospital.
  • A patchwork of definitions, diagnostic criteria, and hospital discharge coding complicate measuring the burden is made more difficult

Read the full report at Global Health NOW.