Sepsis related multi-organ dysfunction: a global perspective on lung and gastrointestinal mortality and management framework

Current-day's sepsis is reported as a life-threatening global health problem responsible for 11 million deaths and 50% of them were associated with lung and gastrointestinal infections. The present study aims to analyse available data from WHO mortality database for the assessment of worldwide lung and gastrointestinal sepsis mortality statistics. The study covers 106 countries and territories from 7 different geographical regions from different income groups. A total of 218 causes related to lung and 146 causes related to gastrointestinal sepsis mortality from 2017 to 2021 were analyzed. Gender and age wise specific analysis was also done covering two genders and 23 age categories. High income countries were found with the highest mortality rates at 1,066.76 per 1,00,000 population suppressing the rates in developing nations. Further, mortality rates were found to be higher in European countries than in their Asian counterparts. During age standardized mortality analysis, males were found with high vulnerabilities during early and middle age whereas females were found to be more susceptible in older age groups. For lung-related sepsis male deaths (1,30,195) were found to be higher than female deaths (9,58,08) in the early neonatal stage. However, this trend was found to be reversed in the elderly population. This comprehensive analysis showed the need for targeted age and gender-specific approaches for prevention and management of this critical health issue.