AN EXPLANATION FOR WHY SO MANY DISEASE SYMPTOMS ARE THE SAME (COMMENT). Nick commented here that: “Not to be melodramatic, but whenever I read about some exotic or rare disease which can be lethal, it seems as though the symptoms are always initially described as ‘flu-like.’” This article by Maggie Fox on the NBC News site has a good explanation of how sepsis results from an overreaction of the body’s immune system.
In the article, Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins, explains that the body’s immune response causes the typical “flu-like symptoms” that bring misery from flu and other infections.
“The muscle aches, the fever — all of that is the result of the immune system responding to the virus,” Adalja said. That’s why so many diseases cause similar symptoms: it’s the body’s response, not the particular invader, that’s to blame.