Spotting Sepsis: A Guide to Its Ten Symptoms

10. Chills

Chills cause a person to feel cold and often shiver or shake. This occurs during sepsis when body attempts to fight the infection with a fever. As body temperature rises in response to the overwhelming infection, shaking chills are common and may be difficult to control. In some cases, fever-lowering medications help ease both the fever and chills. Sometimes, people with sepsis develop alternating chills and sweating, since sepsis makes it harder to control body temperature. The fever, shaking, and chills usually diminish once the infection that caused the sepsis is treated and the patient begins to recover.