When germs get into a person's body, they can cause an infection. If you don't stop that infection, it can cause sepsis. Bacterial infections cause most cases of sepsis. Sepsis can also be a result of other infections, including viral infections, such as COVID-19 or influenza, or fungal infections.
Anyone can get sepsis, but the elderly, children, and infants are most vulnerable. People with weakened immune systems, severe burns, physical trauma, or long-term illnesses (such as diabetes, cancer, or liver disease) are also at increased risk.
How Quickly Can Sepsis Develop? Sepsis can develop quickly from initial infection and progress to septic shock in as little as 12 to 24 hours. 1 You may have an infection that's not improving or you could even be sick without realizing it.
Most sepsis is caused by bacterial infections, but it can also be caused by viral infections, such as COVID-19 or influenza; fungal infections; or noninfectious insults, such as traumatic injury.
Anyone can develop sepsis, but some people are at higher risk for sepsis: Adults 65 or older. People with weakened immune systems. People with chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes, lung disease, cancer, and kidney disease.
While any type of infection — bacterial, viral or fungal — can lead to sepsis, infections that more commonly result in sepsis include infections of: Lungs, such as pneumonia. Kidney, bladder and other parts of the urinary system. Digestive system.
The early symptoms of sepsis include: a high temperature (fever) or, due to changes in circulation, a low body temperature instead. chills and shivering.
Sepsis can be caused by any type of infection: bacterial, viral, fungal, or even parasitic. Sepsis prevention is only possible by preventing infections with good and consistent hygiene and avoiding people with infections.
When treatment or medical intervention is missing, sepsis is a leading cause of death, more significant than breast cancer, lung cancer, or heart attack. Research shows that the condition can kill an affected person in as little as 12 hours.
If the infection has spread or you have a generalized infection, you may develop other signs and symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, pain, etc. Sometimes however, you may have an infection and not know it, and not have any symptoms.
Weakness or aching muscles. Not passing much (or any) urine. Feeling very hot or cold, chills or shivering. Feeling confused, disoriented, or slurring your speech.
Recovery at home: After discharge from hospital, the sepsis survivor needs detailed care at home along with regular reviews with the healthcare provider. They need to have complete rest and build up their strength with slowly increasing activities, as they are likely to feel weak and tired.
fever and/or chills. confusion or disorientation. difficulty breathing. fast heart rate or low blood pressure (hypotension)
Sepsis needs treatment in hospital straight away because it can get worse quickly. You should get antibiotics within 1 hour of arriving at hospital. If sepsis is not treated early, it can turn into septic shock and cause your organs to fail. This is life threatening.
How Do You Get It? You can't catch sepsis from someone else. It happens inside your body, when an infection you already have -- like in your skin, lungs, or urinary tract -- spreads or triggers an immune system response that affects other organs or systems. Most infections don't lead to sepsis.
An estimated 27% of people with sepsis in hospitals and 42% of people in intensive care units will die.
Sepsis can be the clinical manifestation of infections acquired both in the community setting or in health care facilities. Health care-associated infections are one of, if not the most frequent type of adverse event to occur during care delivery and affect hundreds of millions of patients worldwide every year (2).
As severe sepsis usually involves infection of the bloodstream, the heart is one of the first affected organs.
Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection. It happens when your immune system overreacts to an infection and starts to damage your body's own tissues and organs. You cannot catch sepsis from another person.
In other words, more than 90 % of patients with confirmed septic shock were diagnosed within 24 h of the onset of shock and infection was secondarily confirmed in only 28 % of patients with shock having no clear diagnosis at 24 h.
Signs of sepsis are: • Pale, blotchy or blue skin, lips or tongue. Blotchy skin is when parts of your skin are a different colour than normal. Sometimes it is hard to know if you or somebody you look after has sepsis, or if it is something else, like flu or a chest infection.