• Question: Did you ever have any problems with YOUR immune system?

    Asked by EvelynT to Ben, Lizzie, Francis, Max, Sian on 12 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Francis Man

      Francis Man answered on 12 Mar 2018:

      Hay fever, every year! For some reason my immune system has decided that it doesn’t like some types of pollen. Thankfully there are drugs that reduce the symptoms.

    • Photo: Sian Richardson

      Sian Richardson answered on 12 Mar 2018:

      I suffer from Rhumatoid arthritis which I was diagnosed with last year. It runs in my family. This disease means my immune system attacks my own joints causing them to because painful and swollen

    • Photo: Max Jamilly

      Max Jamilly answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      Once I caught dengue (“den-gee”) fever, which is a nasty viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes in tropical countries. The virus reaches a really high concentration in your bloodstream and the immune system has to work very, very hard to fight it. Dengue virus tricks the immune system into spreading it all around the body and normally it takes about a week before the immune cells realise what’s going on and start to fight back.

      Due to the way dengue tricks immune cells, I have to be careful not to catch the disease again. There are four types of the virus: although my immune system should have a good memory of one of them, the other three could produce an even worse response than last time. Unfortunately we still don’t have a vaccine for dengue – but we’re working on it! Meanwhile, I need to wear lots of mosquito repellent…

    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 14 Mar 2018:

      Yes! I’m allergic to peanuts. This means my immune system thinks that peanuts are ‘invaders’ and tries to get rid of them by creating inflammation. This makes my eyes water, my mouth itch and swell and gives me stomach ache. It’s very annoying as I love to eat most types of food!!

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