Although the sepsis mortality rates are unacceptable, they camouflage some significant developments that are and have been occurring for hospital patients, for the general ICU population and, particularly, for those with severe sepsis. Direct comparison of mortality rates among patients with identical Acute Pysiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) scores in the placebo arm of anti-TNF or anti-endotoxin studies published 10-15 years ago [10] [11] [12] with more recent studies [13, 14] , demonstrates that the mortality rate is much lower in more recent studies. Interestingly, this decrease was apparent even before the five interventions discussed in the present article were published, reflecting improvements in the general supportive care of sepsis patients.