Chicago ? An international group of doctors is pushing for aggressive treatment to prevent half a million deaths worldwide from a common bloodstream infection.

Sepsis kills more than 200,000 people annually in the United States alone — more deaths than from lung and breast cancer combined. Muppets creator Jim Henson died from it 14 years ago.

Later this month a coalition of leading critical care specialists will urge doctors, governments and health agencies worldwide to adopt the first-ever sepsis treatment guidelines. Their plan calls for fast use of powerful antibiotics and other aggressive action.

The number of sepsis cases has increased dramatically since the 1980s while death rates have remained stubbornly high, underscoring the need for rapid recognition and treatment, said Dr. Margaret Parker, a guidelines author.

“The goal of this whole project is to decrease the mortality of sepsis worldwide,” said Parker, incoming president of the suburban Chicago-based Society of Critical Care Medicine, which represents more than 11,000 specialists.

Sepsis is estimated to affect 18 million people worldwide each year and kill 1,400 people each day. In the United States alone, 750,000 people yearly develop sepsis and about 30 percent of them die.

Part of the problem is antibiotic overuse that has created drug-resistant germs. But until now there also has been no consensus about how to diagnose and treat sepsis, said Dr. Mitchell Levy of Brown University, another co-author.

The guidelines are the result of recent research showing benefits from potentially lifesaving strategies, including Xigris, approved in 2001 as the first drug to directly attack sepsis, and changes in ventilator use that improve survival chances.

The guidelines are the centerpiece of a campaign launched by specialists from 11 major medical societies on three continents seeking to slash the number of deaths worldwide by 25 percent in five years. The creators plan to unveil their recommendations Feb. 24 at the critical care society’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

Sepsis typically starts as a bacterial infection that can originate from pneumonia, skin infections called cellulitis and urinary infections. The infections may come from bacteria inside the body that grow out of control or from outside germs that invade the body through wounds or IV lines.

These infections spread rapidly, setting off chemical reactions that damage tissue and can lead to organ failure and death.