Swiss Media Briefing on
World Sepsis Day 2025

To mark World Sepsis Day 2025, representatives of the Swiss Sepsis Program spoke to the Swiss media. They presented the Swiss Sepsis Report for the first time, featuring the latest figures on sepsis cases, deaths, and costs in Switzerland. Two sepsis survivors shared their very personal, tragic stories of sepsis, thereby putting a face to the statistics.

Text: Peter Stücheli-Herlach | Photos: David Biedert | 12.09.2025

At the Swiss Sepsis Program press conference, the five speakers sit side by side and discuss research findings as well as personal experiences.

Every year, approximately 20,000 people in Switzerland are diagnosed with sepsis in the hospital, and about 4,000 of them die from it. The number of unreported sepsis cases is likely to be significantly higher (Stilles Sterben in de Spitälern, SRF/RTS on September 11, 2025). These findings come from the Swiss Sepsis Report, which was published for the first time on World Sepsis Day 2025.

Like heart attacks and strokes

“Sepsis is on the same scale as heart attacks and strokes; however, those conditions are far better known,” says intensive care physician and program director Nora Lüthi, the report’s lead author. “Sepsis is also an underestimated, constant threat to people’s health and lives in Switzerland,” she emphasizes.

Immense costs

The Sepsis Report has estimated that the annual direct hospital costs associated with sepsis have now risen to over one billion Swiss francs. When secondary costs are taken into account, the total cost is likely to be around two billion Swiss francs.

Luregn Schlapbach, an intensive care physician and program director, speaks of “immense costs” for patients, their families, and the healthcare system. The Swiss Sepsis Program aims to reduce these costs. It is a well-coordinated approach at both the international and national levels.

Speaking on behalf of the Swiss Sepsis Program are: Peter Suter, Sylvain Meylan, Luregn Schlapbach, Nora Lüthi, Jennifer Epifanio, and Lilian Robert. (Photos: David Bienert)

Broad knowledge is necessary

“Sepsis usually begins at home,” Schlapbach explains, which is why broader knowledge about sepsis is necessary. However, the program is also intended to improve training for healthcare professionals. Sylvain Meylan, head of a work package, adds that hospitals need to be “empowered.” In this regard, the sepsis program can build on experiences at the University Hospital of Vaud (CHUV) and on a diverse national group of experts.

"So that others don't experience the same"

“I’m sharing our story here today because I don’t want other families to have to go through the same ordeal we did,” explains Jennifer Epifanio, the mother of a boy who died of sepsis at the age of 14. And: “Before we lost our son to sepsis, we had never even heard of it.” Lilian Robert has survived sepsis three times. “Surviving is a great blessing, but also a huge daily challenge,” she says: “Everyone in Switzerland should know what sepsis can do.”

"We can do a lot better"

“There is still much room for improvement,” concludes Peter Suter, a former intensive care physician and member of the Sepsis program’s steering committee. He invites people to sign the Swiss Sepsis Declaration, which represents a collective commitment to combating sepsis in Switzerland.

Stream the press conference for World Sepsis Day 2025

Sepsis affects thousands of people in Switzerland every year. On World Sepsis Day 2025, patients and healthcare professionals raised awareness of this underestimated disease and presented Swiss data for the first time.

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