Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Sepsis
Infection in blood stream
HP:0100806
What it means
Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection.
For clinical operationalization, organ dysfunction can be represented by an increase in the Sequential Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score of 2 points or more.
In everyday care
Most people with this sign do not have a rare disease — it appears in common conditions far more often. These general reference pages cover the same topic:
Rare diseases that can present with this80
Very common80–99%
5Common30–79%
11- Adult acute respiratory distress syndrome
- Congenital enterovirus infection
- Ebola hemorrhagic fever
- Inhalational anthrax
- Invasive meningococcal disease
- Melioidosis
- PGM3-CDG
- Posttransplant acute limbic encephalitis
- Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
- T-B+NK- severe combined immunodeficiency due to gamma chain deficiency
- X-linked agammaglobulinemia
Sometimes5–29%
44- Acquired purpura fulminans
- Acute lung injury
- ALG1-CDG
- Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome due to CTLA4 haploinsuffiency
- Autosomal dominant generalized epidermolysis bullosa simplex, severe form
- Autosomal non-syndromic agammaglobulinemia
- Bacterial toxic-shock syndrome
- Bullous impetigo
and 36 more in this range
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions, and Orphanet separately records 1 disease where this sign is specifically absent. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Tracking symptoms like this for someone? Eleplan keeps symptoms, diagnoses, medications and every specialist in one plan.
Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.