Sepsis

“For most of the 20th century, ‘sepsis’ was a diagnosis made by an experienced clinician utilizing clinical gestalt, often using bacteremia and shock as the most apparent indications of the disease. . . . the existing sepsis definition failed to capture its true nature as the body’s reaction to infection. It was not so much a direct harmful effect of microbes, but rather pieces of these microbes, as well as damaged tissue, tripping the body’s innate or nonspecific defense system, that led to the sepsis response (Shahinpoor, 165-166).