While platelets were traditionally considered merely incidental participants in the systemic inflammatory response to infection, mainly exerting their effects through the synthesis and secretion of inflammatory cytokines like interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF), recent literature suggests their role is far more active than previously thought [19, 20]. Here, IL6 is linked to infection.