Sepsis: People with chronic diseases or learning disabilities more likely to die from infection, scientists warn
People suffering from chronic liver and kidney diseases, as well as those with learning disabilities, are at greater risk of dying from sepsis, scientists have warned.
Patients with some of these conditions are three times more likely to die from an infection within a month, and those with kidney disease are up to six times more at risk, a new study of NHS data has found.
Being from a poor background can also lead to an 80% greater risk of developing sepsis and dying, the experts said.
The new research found those who have a “history of extensive antibiotic exposure” are also at higher risk.
Professor Tjeerd van Staa, from the University of Manchester who co-authored the study, said: “This study shows socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidity and learning disabilities are associated with an increased risk of developing non-COVID-19-related sepsis and 30-day mortality in England.
“This research underscores the urgent need for sepsis risk prediction models to account for chronic disease status, deprivation status, and learning disabilities, along with infection severity.
“There is an urgent need to improve the prevention of sepsis, including more precise targeting of antimicrobials to higher-risk patients.”
The study also looked at deaths within 30 days of a sepsis diagnosis and found these were highest among those aged in their 80s and people of white ethnicity.
While patients with cancer, neurological disease, diabetes and immunosuppressive conditions were at increased risk of catching sepsis, the researchers said.
Underweight or obese people also had higher odds of developing sepsis and smokers were also said to be at higher risk, according to the study.
After making adjustments for other factors, the researchers also found people with a learning disability were at least three times more likely to be diagnosed with sepsis compared to people without.
Patients with an ‘extensive antibiotic exposure’ are at higher risk
What is sepsis and what are the symptoms?
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body overreacts to an infection and starts attacking its own tissues and organs.
When diagnosed, sepsis is deemed a medical emergency, but it can be hard to spot by doctors because in adults it can initially feel like flu, a chest infection or gastroenteritis.
But its severity is also often missed in children as the symptoms are attributed to other conditions.
These early symptoms include fever, chills and shivering, a fast heartbeat and quick breathing.
Symptoms of sepsis or septic shock include feeling dizzy or faint, nausea and vomiting, confusion or disorientation, diarrhoea and cold, clammy and pale or mottled skin.
Any child who is breathing very fast, has a fit or looks mottled, bluish, or pale, or has a rash that does not fade when you press it, may have sepsis.
Possible signs in children under five years old include not feeding, vomiting repeatedly, or not having a wee or wet nappy for 12 hours.
Read more:
Increase in antibiotic-resistant deaths post-pandemic
Antibiotics prices ‘hiked to take advantage’ of demand
High-profile cases raise awareness
Earlier this year, actor Jason Watkins described the night his two-year-old daughter, Maude, died in 2011 from sepsis after doctors discharged her saying she had a bad cold and croup.
The Bafta award-winning star of The Crown and his wife Clara made a documentary on their loss to raise awareness about the deadly infection.
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World Sepsis Day: A ‘cruel’ disease
The UK Sepsis Trust has previously said the condition affects 245,000 people and claims 48,000 lives in the UK each year.
In August, Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden revealed she contracted sepsis after her first round of chemotherapy to treat breast cancer.
For the new study, data on 224,000 cases of sepsis in England between January 2019 to June 2022 was compared to more than 1.3 million people who did not have sepsis.
The study findings were published in the journal eClinicalMedicine.
A nine-year-old girl found dead in Weston-super-Mare has been named on the day police revealed a teenager had been charged with her murder.
Emergency services were called to Lime Close in the Somerset town at 6.09pm on Monday but Aria Thorpe was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said a 15-year-old boy had been charged with her murder and that a preliminary post-mortem found she died from a single stab wound.
The teenage boy – who can’t be named due to his age – will appear at Bristol Magistrates’ Court later today.
A police cordon remains in place as forensics officers continue their work.
Flowers and tributes have been left at the scene. Pic: PA
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Superintendent Jen Appleford, from Avon and Somerset Police, said the community was in shock and Aria’s family were being supported by police.
“It is impossible to adequately describe how traumatic the past 36 hours have been for them and we’d like to reiterate in the strongest possible terms their request for privacy,” she said.
Supt Appleford said police were working with local schools and other agencies to make sure support is available.
Britain loves chocolate.
We’re estimated to consume 8.2kg each every year, a good chunk of it at Christmas, but the cost of that everyday luxury habit has been rising fast.
Whitakers have been making chocolate in Skipton in North Yorkshire for 135 years, but they have never experienced price pressures as extreme as those in the last five.
“We buy liquid chocolate and since 2023, the price of our chocolate has doubled,” explains William Whitaker, the real-life Willy Wonka and the fourth generation of the family to run the business.
William Whitaker, managing director of the company
“It could have been worse. If we hadn’t been contracted [with a supplier], it would have trebled.
“That represents a £5,000 per-tonne increase, and we use a thousand tonnes a year. And we only sell £12-£13m of product, so it’s a massive effect.”
Whitakers makes 10 million pieces of chocolate a week in a factory on the much-expanded site of the original bakery where the business began.
Automated production lines snake through the site moulding, cutting, cooling, coating and wrapping a relentless procession of fondants, cremes, crisps and pure chocolate products for customers, including own-brand retail, supermarkets, and the catering trade.
Steepest inflation in the business
All of them have faced price increases as Whitakers has grappled with some of the steepest inflation in the food business.
Cocoa prices have soared in the last two years, largely because of a succession of poor cocoa harvests in West Africa, where Ghana and the Ivory Coast produce around two-thirds of global supply.
A combination of drought and crop disease cut global output by around 14% last year, pushing consumer prices in the other direction, with chocolate inflation passing 17% in the UK in October.
Skimpflation and shrinkflation
Some major brands have responded by cutting the chocolate content of products – “skimpflation” – or charging more for less – “shrinkflation”.
Household-name brands including Penguin and Club have cut the cocoa and milk solid content so far they can no longer be classified as chocolate, and are marketed instead as “chocolate-flavour”.
Whitakers have stuck to their recipes and product sizes, choosing to pass price increases on to customers while adapting products to the new market conditions.
“Not only are major brands putting up prices over 20%, sometimes 40%, they’ve also reduced the size of their pieces and sometimes the ingredients,” says William Whitaker.
“We haven’t done any of that. We knew that long-term, the market will fall again, and that happier days will return.
“We’ve introduced new products where we’ve used chocolate as a coating rather than a solid chocolate because the centre, which is sugar-based, is cheaper than the chocolate.
“We’ve got a big product range of fondant creams, and others like gingers and Brazil nuts, where we’re using that chocolate as a coating.”
The costs are adding up
A deluge of price rises
Brazil nuts have enjoyed their own spike in price, more than doubling to £15,000 a tonne at one stage.
On top of commodity prices determined by markets beyond their control, Whitakers face the same inflationary pressures as other UK businesses.
“We’ve had the minimum wage increasing every year, we had the national insurance rise last year, and sort of hidden a little bit in this budget is a business rate increase.
“This is a small business, we turn over £12m, but our rates will go up nearly £100,000 next year before any other costs.
“If you add up all the cocoa and all the other cost increases in 2024 and 2025, it’s nearly £3m of cost increases we’ve had to bear. Some of that is returning to a little normality. It does test the relevance of what you do.”
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