Sepsis

Sepsis is a life-threatening illness. Your body's response to a bacterial infection usually causes it. Your immune system goes into overdrive, overwhelming normal processes in your blood. The result is that small blood clots form, blocking blood flow to vital organs. This can lead to organ failure. Babies, old people and those with weakened immune systems are most likely to get sepsis. But even healthy people can become deathly ill from it.

Everything You Need To Know About Sepsis

Sepsis is a life-threatening systemic response to an infection. This article provides an overview of sepsis, including stages, diagnosis and treatment.

How Antimicrobial Resistance Amplifies the Burden of Sepsis

Sepsis Pathophysiology

Causes and Symptoms of Sepsis in Newborns

Recovering from Sepsis

The Development of a Sepsis Scoring System in a Murine Model

Sepsis Complications and Prevention

Diagnosis and Treatment of Sepsis in Newborns

Lactate Levels and Sepsis

Sepsis at the Molecular Level

Sepsis and Influenza

Sepsis History

See more featured articles »

The Stages of Sepsis

Sepsis Prevention

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and Sepsis

Sepsis Diagnosis

Sepsis Epidemiology

Sepsis: Identifying the Signs and Administering First Aid

Sepsis and Pregnancy

Latest Sepsis News and Research

NEWS2 score may improve antibiotic decisions in suspected sepsis

A study of nearly 100,000 adults treated for suspected infection suggests that the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2), a score based on routinely collected vital signs that is widely used to identify patients at risk of clinical deterioration, may help clinicians identify which patients are most likely to benefit from immediate antibiotic treatment and which may safely undergo further evaluation before receiving antibiotics.

6 Aug 2026

Engineered extracellular vesicles counter deadly cytokine storms in mice

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted some severe consequences of unchecked respiratory disease, including cytokine storm.

31 Jul 2026

New mechanism linked to septic heart injury protection uncovered

Sepsis triggers widespread inflammation, circulatory failure and metabolic stress, and cardiac dysfunction is a common complication associated with sharply poorer outcomes.

31 Jul 2026

Bioresorbable sensor tracks deep-tissue lactate for over 10 days in animals

In animal models, the flexible implant captured local metabolic warning signs before selected systemic measurements and used them to guide earlier resuscitation.

27 Jul 2026

New bacterial control strategy helps revive failing last-line antibiotics

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the world's most alarming public health challenges, because the multidrug-resistant (MDR) gram-negative bacteria increasingly render even last-line antibiotics ineffective, leading to substantially higher mortality rates.

23 Jul 2026

Researchers discover new peptide mechanism to treat allergic asthma

A team from the University of Bonn and the Research Center Borstel, Leibniz Lung Center (FZB) has discovered a previously unknown mechanism of action for a synthetic peptide that mitigates excessive inflammatory responses in allergic asthma.

21 Jul 2026

Rising antimicrobial resistance in children threatens life-saving antibiotic effectiveness

Antimicrobial resistance in children is rising globally and will worsen over the next decade, threatening the effectiveness of life‑saving antibiotics, according to a world-first monitoring platform.

20 Jul 2026

Epidurals during labor show no significant risks to newborns

Having an epidural during labor is not associated with clinically significant increased risks of harm to newborn babies, including brain injury, severe breathing problems, sepsis and death, or cerebral palsy later in childhood.

15 Jul 2026

Cell death crosstalk network drives acute respiratory distress syndrome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) remains one of the deadliest complications of severe infections, sepsis, trauma, and viral pneumonia, yet decades of research have produced few targeted therapies capable of improving patient outcomes.

14 Jul 2026

Survey reveals gaps in acute kidney injury prevention across intensive care

Acute kidney injury (AKI) remains one of the most frequent and clinically significant complications among critically ill patients, affecting nearly half of those admitted to intensive care units (ICUs).

3 Jul 2026

High-dose intravenous vitamin C may improve trauma patient survival outcomes

High doses of intravenous (IV) vitamin C may lower the risks of death and sepsis in trauma patients, as well as shortening hospital stay, suggests a review of the available evidence published online in the journal BMJ Military Health.

30 Jun 2026

Nerve stimulation methods provide safe relief for oropharyngeal dysphagia

Dysphagia, a severe comorbidity of many neurological diseases, often lacks targeted therapies. This critical review assessed the clinical effectiveness and safety of electrical stimulation of cranial nerves for treating dysphagia, including implantable (direct nerve stimulation), minimally invasive (pharyngeal electrical stimulation, PES), and non‑invasive (transcutaneous) approaches.

30 Jun 2026

New strategy restores vancomycin effectiveness against resistant bacteria

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent threats to global health, linked to an estimated 4.7 million deaths worldwide in 2019 alone.

29 Jun 2026

New review highlights TREM-1 receptor as target for inflammatory diseases

A comprehensive review recently published in Current Molecular Pharmacology consolidates the growing evidence surrounding the Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid Cells-1 (TREM-1) as a central amplifier of innate immune responses and a promising therapeutic target for a range of inflammatory diseases.

25 Jun 2026

Gene therapy shows promise against deadly childhood liver disease

A new gene therapy has been used to successfully treat a deadly childhood liver disease using mice that model this disease by researchers at UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

23 Jun 2026

Cambridge researchers discover three distinct severe pneumonia biological subtypes

Cambridge researchers have shown that severe pneumonia has three different subtypes, helping explain why some patients in intensive care units (ICUs) recover from their illness faster than others, while for other patients the disease can be life-threatening.

23 Jun 2026

Optimized proximity labeling platform tracks cellular protein communication networks

The body's organs are in constant communication. Fat tissue tells the liver when to store or release energy, the immune system signals localized inflammation, and thousands of proteins carry these messages to organs throughout the body.

22 Jun 2026

Gene therapy successfully treats deadly childhood liver disease in mice

A new gene therapy has been used to successfully treat a deadly childhood liver disease using mice that model this disease by researchers at UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

19 Jun 2026

WHO Issues Comprehensive Guidelines On Filovirus Disease, Including Ebola And Marburg Disease

As the Democratic Republic of the Congo is battling an Ebola disease outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has released its first comprehensive guidelines for the clinical management of filovirus disease which include all types of Ebola and Marburg viruses.

18 Jun 2026

Deep learning identifies novel compounds against antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea

With tens of millions of annual cases, gonorrhea is the second most frequently reported sexually transmitted infection (STI). Alone in the U.S., over 600,000 cases are reported each year.

17 Jun 2026