{"id":661092,"date":"2026-05-23T20:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661092\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T20:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:52:08","slug":"what-to-know-about-sepsis-life-threatening-but-hard-to-spot-wral-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661092\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about sepsis: Life-threatening but hard to spot :: WRAL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Consider sepsis an invisible threat. It kills about\u00a0350,000 Americans a year<\/a>\u00a0and may cause\u00a0nearly one-fifth of deaths globally<\/a>. But you won\u2019t find it on any \u201cleading causes of death<\/a>\u201d lists.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because sepsis <\/a>starts as something else: infections in places such as the lungs, skin and urinary tract that usually resolve with no problem. But when your body mounts an extreme response to that infection, damaging organs in the process, it means you have sepsis.<\/p>\n

Adding to the stealth of sepsis, early symptoms are often vague and hard to identify, and people don\u2019t know what they\u2019re experiencing until they get sicker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a classical presentation like a heart attack or stroke, and it can be very subtle,\u201d says UNC Health critical care physician Francis Castiller, MD, who treats sepsis in the intensive care unit at UNC Rex Hospital.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat is sepsis, and who gets it?<\/p>\n

When we get infections, it\u2019s because an invading pathogen, usually a virus or bacteria, has entered the body. In response to the invader, the immune system releases cells to fight the threat. The cells contain \u201cinflammatory mediators\u201d that attack the pathogen.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes these inflammatory mediators are so overreactive that they actually harm our own organs,\u201d Dr. Castiller says.<\/p>\n

Almost any infection, from a cut in the skin to COVID-19, can lead to sepsis. Most commonly, sepsis starts with infections in the\u00a0lung<\/a>,\u00a0urinary tract<\/a>, skin or gastrointestinal tract.<\/p>\n

Anyone can get sepsis, but people age 65 and older, people with compromised immune systems and those with significant comorbidities, such as vascular disease or diabetes, are at greatest risk. Babies younger than 1 are also at higher risk of sepsis.<\/p>\n

If sepsis is not treated with antibiotics or the drugs don\u2019t work, it can progress to septic shock, when blood pressure drops dangerously low and organs begin to fail. The risk of death from sepsis without shock is about 12 to 15 percent; with shock, it\u2019s as high as 45 percent, Dr. Castiller says.<\/p>\n

Sepsis is not an infection you \u201ccatch\u201d in the hospital, but\u00a01 in 3 patients who die in a hospital<\/a>\u00a0had sepsis. Sepsis is that common and that deadly.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTreat sepsis fast to survive<\/p>\n

The key to surviving sepsis is to treat it early, which can be difficult both because of a lack of awareness and because sepsis doesn\u2019t cause the same symptoms for everyone, Dr. Castiller says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not one easy symptom to point to,\u201d he says. \u201cI always tell people, if your loved one does not look right, does not seem right, whatever that means, call a provider and get evaluated quickly. Early recognition makes the biggest difference in sepsis.\u201d<\/p>\n

For babies, it\u2019s the same idea: If your child isn\u2019t eating or sleeping normally or seems lethargic, contact your pediatrician right away.<\/p>\n

Doctors should suspect sepsis if two of three conditions are met, Dr. Castiller says: low blood pressure, rapid breathing and confusion.<\/p>\n

Treatment is antibiotics and IV fluids to improve organ function. Sometimes doctors need to use more than one antibiotic.<\/p>\n

If your loved one has an infection that isn\u2019t improving, don\u2019t be afraid to ask their doctor or nurse whether sepsis is a possibility, Dr. Castiller says.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLife after sepsis<\/p>\n

Sepsis takes a toll on the body that can linger even after the infection has cleared. Survivors can experience\u00a0physical and mental symptoms<\/a>\u00a0including weakness, fatigue, trouble sleeping, anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n

Depending on the course of a person\u2019s illness, their affected organs might not work as well as they did before. For example, a person who had sepsis from a kidney infection might have chronic kidney problems going forward.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, \u201cfor most people, the organ dysfunction is reversible,\u201d Dr. Castiller says.<\/p>\n

Sepsis survivors often benefit from rehabilitation and physical therapy. For those with mental health effects, including symptoms of\u00a0post-traumatic stress disorder<\/a>, seeing a psychologist can be beneficial.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important for survivors to know that they\u2019re at increased risk of experiencing sepsis again, Dr. Castiller says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to keep up efforts to increase awareness so we can recognize and treat sepsis early,\u201d he says. \u201cThat is the most effective way to save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story originally appeared on UNC Health Talk\u00a0in Sept. 29, 2022.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Consider sepsis an invisible threat. It kills about\u00a0350,000 Americans a year\u00a0and may cause\u00a0nearly one-fifth of deaths globally. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[97,21729,170069],"class_list":["post-661092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-infection","tag-unc-health-talk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}