Swiss Sepsis Report 2025
20,000 cases of sepsis and
4,000 deaths per year
The Swiss Sepsis Report 2025 reveals for the first time the extent of sepsis in Switzerland: Swiss hospitals record approximately 20,000 cases annually, over 500 of which involve children. Nearly 4,000 people die from sepsis in the hospital. Direct hospital costs amount to over 1 billion Swiss francs per year. Sepsis is thus a common and life-threatening health problem that is still underestimated.
Sepsis facts from the report
Sepsis was diagnosed in this many hospital stays (in 2023)
That represents 1.6% of all acute hospital stays, of which 6,098 cases involved septic shock (29.3%)
This is the average length of stay in hospital for sepsis.
In contrast, it is only 3 days for admissions without an explicit sepsis diagnosis.
This is the percentage of sepsis cases that occurred in patients over the age of 65
This amounts to 14,733 cases (in 2023)
This is the percentage of sepsis cases that required treatment in the intensive care unit
This amounts to 8,542 cases (in 2023)
This is the percentage of sepsis cases in the hospital that were fatal
There were 3,971 deaths (in 2023)
These are the average costs per hospital stay for a diagnosis of sepsis (in 2023)
These are the annual direct hospital costs associated with sepsis (in 2023)
This figure does not include readmissions, rehabilitation and follow-up care costs, or indirect costs resulting from lost income or the long-term burden on patients and their families
About the report
The Swiss Sepsis Report 2025 is based on an analysis of all hospitalization data from Swiss acute care hospitals from 2019 to 2023. The report thus provides the first nationwide overview of the incidence, mortality, resource utilization, and costs associated with sepsis.
