Yes, you can have sepsis for weeks without fully realizing it because early symptoms mimic the flu (fever, aches, feeling unwell) and can worsen slowly, making it hard to diagnose, but it's a medical emergency where the body's extreme response to infection damages tissues, often requiring urgent antibiotics and hospital care; prompt medical attention for worsening infections is crucial, with experts advising to ask, "Could it be sepsis?".
Time matters when diagnosing and treating sepsis. Seek immediate medical attention if you have a severe infection and are experiencing symptoms such as shivering, fever, chills, extreme pain or discomfort, clammy or sweaty skin, confusion or disorientation, shortness of breath and rapid heartbeat.
Sometimes however, you may have an infection and not know it, and not have any symptoms. Keep this in mind especially if you have recently had surgery or an invasive medical procedure, a break in your skin, or you have been exposed to someone who is ill.
Others survive longer if the infection is slower to overwhelm the body or if some supportive care is provided. The core message: untreated sepsis can be rapidly fatal, often within hours to a few days, and the risk is much higher in nursing-home populations.
blue, grey, pale or blotchy skin, lips or tongue – on brown or black skin, this may be easier to see on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet. a rash that does not fade when you roll a glass over it, the same as meningitis. difficulty breathing, breathlessness or breathing very fast.
Sepsis can be hard to spot. At the start you may look okay but feel really bad. Call 999 if you or someone else has any of these signs of sepsis. Signs of sepsis are: • Pale, blotchy or blue skin, lips or tongue.
Some medical issues that can mimic the symptoms of sepsis are as follows:
Stage 1: Sepsis
Sepsis can be hard to identify in its early stages, but common symptoms that show evidence of the disease during its first stage include: A high fever above 101℉ (38℃) or low temperature below 96.8℉ (36℃) A heart rate above 90 beats per minute.
Results, Reporting, and Critical Findings
NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, urges hospital staff to treat people with life-threatening sepsis within one hour, in its quality standard. In clinical practice, this is often referred to as the 'golden hour' after diagnosis.
Symptoms of sepsis
Sweating for no clear reason. Feeling lightheaded. Shivering. Symptoms specific to the type of infection, such as painful urination from a urinary tract infection or worsening cough from pneumonia.
DEFINING LATE-ONSET SEPSIS
EOS is mostly defined as manifesting in the first 48–72 hours after birth. In the preterm NICU population, sepsis may occur much later; thus, in research contexts, LOS encompasses sepsis presenting ≥72 hours after birth and through NICU hospitalization.
A person with sepsis will be admitted to a hospital, usually in the intensive care unit (ICU). Antibiotics are usually given through a vein (intravenously) and need to be given as quickly as possible. Other medical treatments include: Oxygen to help with breathing.
To check yourself for sepsis, watch for a combination of symptoms like fast breathing, rapid heart rate, confusion or drowsiness, fever or low temperature, shivering, extreme pain/discomfort, clammy skin, or a rash that doesn't fade, and decreased urination, especially if you have an infection. Sepsis is a medical emergency, so if you suspect it, seek immediate medical help by calling emergency services or going to the hospital.
your lips or skin are turning very pale, blue or grey – on brown or black skin this is easier to see on the palms of your hands. you feel more drowsy than usual or find it more difficult to wake up. you have cold, clammy and pale or mottled skin – on brown or black skin this is easier to see on the palms of your hands.
A consensus conference in 1991 defined “sepsis” as the combination of an infection with two or more features of what was called the “systemic inflammatory response syndrome” (SIRS): altered body temperature, elevated pulse rate, elevated respiratory rate and abnormal white blood cell count6.
The CBC of a patient with sepsis is commonly characterized by lymphocytopenia, neutrophilia, eosinopenia, thrombocytopenia, increased RDW, and increased NLR (Figure 2). The importance of thrombocytopenia in patients with sepsis is emphasized by the inclusion of platelet count in the SOFA score.
Because sepsis can happen quickly, it is important to be alert for early signs. The most common signs include the following: Source of infection (cough, sore throat, abdominal pain, pain with urination) and fevers. High heart rate.
There are no doctors who specialize in treating sepsis. The doctors who are most likely to see patients who have sepsis are intensivists (physicians who work in the intensive care unit) and emergency room physicians, who see the patients when they come in for urgent care.
Bacterial infections are one of the most common causes of sepsis. Fungal, parasitic and viral infections are also potential sepsis causes. You can get sepsis when an infection triggers a chain reaction throughout your body causing organ dysfunction.
If someone is unwell and you think they have one or more symptoms of sepsis, do not wait. Call 999 or 112 for emergency help straight away.
These infections are most often linked to sepsis:
Sepsis is diagnosed through a combination of rapid clinical assessment (fever, fast heart/breathing rate, confusion, low blood pressure) and tests like blood cultures, CBC, lactate, CRP, and urine/fluid analysis, often using tools like qSOFA, to find the infection source and check organ function, as there's no single test for it. Doctors look for signs of organ dysfunction alongside suspected infection, ordering imaging (X-rays, CT scans) to pinpoint the cause, with immediate antibiotic treatment crucial even before definitive results arrive.
However, the combination of vague clinical presentations and regulatory urgency often leads to both over- and under-diagnosis. Too often, patients without sepsis are treated for it, and many with true sepsis are missed—resulting in diagnostic errors, ineffective treatment, and worse outcomes.
Ideally, these clinical criteria should identify all the elements of sepsis (infection, host response, and organ dysfunction), be simple to obtain, and be available promptly and at a reasonable cost or burden.