Aberrant immune responses characterize sepsis, a disease that afflicts as many as 750,000 people in the United States each year and kills 30-50% - more deaths than those attributed to prostate cancer, breast cancer, and AIDS combined. Despite the prevalence of the disease, less than 20% of Americans have ever heard the term “sepsis.” 



Merinoff Symposium 2010: Sepsis will forge new alliances among leaders in the field, and will draw international attention to the clinical problem that this highly lethal disease presents. 



Merinoff Symposium 2010: Sepsis has three goals:

1. Create a public definition of sepsis: currently, public understanding and appreciation of sepsis is poor, in large part because it has not been defined in terms the public can understand. Generating a common-language definition upon which the clinical and scientific communities agree will help raise awareness of this highly lethal disease.

2. Create a molecular definition of sepsis: currently, diagnosis of sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock is dependent upon a constellation of subtle clinical cues that can often go unrecognized. Identifying quantifiable serological biomarkers

3. Recognize sepsis as the primary cause of death in the world: the current epidemiology of sepsis is based on incomplete reporting. Patients suffering from many diseases - infectious diseases, cancer, even heart disease and stroke - often die of sepsis, rather than their primary diagnosis, which is frequently listed as their cause of death.