Abstract
Timely and accurate data on the epidemiology of sepsis is essential to inform public
policy, clinical practice, and research priorities. Recent studies have illuminated
several ongoing questions about sepsis epidemiology, including the incidence and outcomes
of sepsis in non-Western countries and in specialized populations such as surgical
patients, patients with cancer, and the elderly. There have also been new insights
into the limitations of current surveillance methods using administrative data and
increasing experience tracking sepsis incidence and outcomes using “big data” approaches
that take advantage of detailed electronic health record data. The COVID-19 pandemic,
however, has fundamentally changed the landscape of sepsis epidemiology. It has increased
sepsis rates, helped highlight ongoing controversies about how to define sepsis, and
intensified debate about the possible unintended consequences of overly rigid sepsis
care bundles. Despite these controversies, there is a growing consensus that severe
COVID-19 causing organ dysfunction is appropriate to label as sepsis, even though
it is treated very differently from bacterial sepsis, and that surveillance strategies
need to be modified to reliably identify these cases to fully capture and delineate
the current burden of sepsis. This review will summarize recent insights into the
epidemiology of sepsis and highlight several urgent questions and priorities catalyzed
by COVID-19.
Keywords
sepsis epidemiology - COVID-19 - SARS-CoV-2
