Sepsis: Get First Aid
A pale hand with red lines of infection running from a pricked fingertip down the arm is set against a dark blue skull. The lettering reads 'SEPSIS' and 'GET FIRST AID'. Fear-appeal tell: the skull behind the wounded hand stages death as the outcome of an untreated scratch, followed by a one-line instruction.
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Labour and National Service (produced by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents; design by Pat Keely)
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Health, Labor
- Techniques
- Fear appeal
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wellcome Collection (London), work b12022603, reference 44448i, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- CC BY 4.0 per Wellcome Collection; UK Crown-issued, 1943 (over 50 years)
Wellcome Collection
Text on the object
SEPSIS GET FIRST AID Issued by the Ministry of Labour and National Service and produced by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Terminal House, 52 Grosvenor Gardens, London, S.W.1.
A pencilled 'Pat Keely '43' in the upper right corner of the sheet is a later annotation, not part of the printed poster, and is not transcribed as poster text.
