A major overhaul is needed into how hospitals identify and treat a life-threatening disease, a leading doctor has warned.

Sepsis, known as the silent killer, affects thousands of people every year in the UK.

However it often goes undetected until it is too late for treatment to work.

Professor Jon Cohen, former dean of Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said the condition was one of the best known yet most poorly understood medical disorders.

Sepsis – sometimes misleadingly called blood poisoning – happens when an infection causes an extreme response from the body’s immune system.

This can quickly lead to the failure of the heart, liver, lungs or kidneys and eventual death.

Early symptoms of sepsis include a high temperature and fast breathing followed by blood clotting, swelling and inflammation.

Although no specific cure for the condition exists, it can often be treated effectively with intensive medical care including antibiotics and fluids if caught early enough.

Prof Cohen said: “The number of people dying from sepsis every year – perhaps as many as six million worldwide – is shocking, yet research into new treatments for the condition seems to have stalled.

“Researchers, clinicians, and policymakers need to radically rethink the way we are researching and diagnosing this devastating condition.”

Prof Cohen is recommending prioritising research into the triggers for sepsis, which would help speed up diagnosis, better education of medical staff and improving public awareness.

Mother-of-two Anna Tilley, 26, from near East Grinstead, knows only too well the dangers of sepsis and the need to raise awareness.

She developed a sore throat and aches and pains and just four days later her condition had deteriorated, leaving her struggling to breathe and suffering hallucinations and a rash.

Her parents had to carry her into her GP practice and insist staff call an ambulance.

Although Ms Tilley was suffering the typical symptoms of sepsis, none of the hospital doctors realised how critically ill she was.

She said: “At one point they thought it was some sort of foreign disease. Thankfully a junior anaesthetist realised it was sepsis and said I needed to go into intensive care.”

Ms Tilley spent four days on oxygen and antibiotics after her liver, kidneys and pancreas all failed.

She said: “At that point I was just hours from death. If I had not had that treatment I would have died in my sleep that night.”

Ms Tilley is now a supporter of the UK Sepsis Trust, which aims to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of the condition.

NHS England says it is constantly working to improve care standards, and has recently started to offer incentives to hospitals that screen and treat patients who display symptoms for sepsis as quickly as possible.