Illness Strikes 1 person in U.S. Every 2.5 Minutes - Now Affects Lily Allen

If you heard about an illness that struck down one more person in the United States every 2.5 minutes, wouldn't you want to know what it was? If you knew that about one-third of the people hit by the illness died, wouldn't you want to know about it? If you knew that many of those who do survive are left with amputations of legs and/or arms, memory deficits and other physical problems, wouldn't you want to know what it is?

"It" is sepsis.

Many of you may have heard of blood poisoning. Sepsis is the true term for the illness that used to be though of as blood poisoning. Currently, UK pop singer Lily Allen is fighting sepsis, or septecemia.

Sepsis is the number one cause of death among people who have AIDS. It is a major cause of death from cancer. Most often, if you read or hear about someone who had died of "complications of cancer/pneumonia/influenza," they've died of sepsis.

Did you know that Johnny Depp's daughter, Lily-Rose survived and won her fight against sepsis? Here are some other famous people, most of whom did not win their battle:

Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets - influenza
Pope John-Paul II, Brazilian model Mariana Bridi Costa and singer Etta James - urinary tract infection
Fred Hersch, jazz composer and musician - lives with HIV/AIDS

To read of some of those who were affected by sepsis, there are some wonderful and heart-wrenching stories at Faces of Sepsis, at the Sepsis Alliance site, www.sepsisalliance.org. SA also has a facebook page.

Here's to hoping that Lily Allen wins her battle. The world doesn't need to lose yet another person to this treatable illness.