What happens to dwarves with infections?

Question

My military dwarves sallied out to fight a goblin ambush group that was attacking my woodcutter, and they were ambushed by another group. They killed a few and scared the others off. While pursuing the cowards they were ambushed by a third group. After a fierce battle, I had to send a lot of soldiers to the hospital. Luckily no one died.

My doctors took care of the wounded and got them all fixed up. Well, almost. Some of them got out of the hospital with an infection. They're back on their training schedule, and seem perfectly fine, except for the mention of an infection in the health screen. Will their condition deteriorate sometime later and get them back to the hospital? Or perhaps to the morgue? If so, what can I do to treat the infections?

Answer 1

Infections can heal on their own, but not always. The best method is prevention, which means having soap in your hospital so the doctors clean their wounds (and hopefully prevent infection).

If your dwarves ever become "pale" it means that death from infection is imminent.