According to new research, having a pre-existing health condition raises the risk of sepsis, as can a history of extensive antibiotic exposure. The UK Sepsis Trust reports that sepsis leads to around 48,000 deaths every year, more than lung cancer, bowel cancer and breast cancer combined.“The problem is that the signs of sepsis can be really quite subtle,” says Prof Peter Ghazal who runs Cardiff University’s Project Sepsis research collaboration. “They can be nothing more than maybe your heart rate being slightly raised, you may or may not have a temperature, and then people can very suddenly become very, very sick, feel absolutely awful and they’re about to die.”
