• Question: how does a secondary immunodeficiency disease occur?

    Asked by Hannah Hopper to Sian, Max, Lizzie, Francis, Ben on 13 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      Secondary just means ’caused by something else’. The likely biggest cause of secondary immunodeficiency in the UK are some medications. These are used for things like autoimmune disease and cancer, but can affect the immune system. Another big cause of secondary immunodeficiency, especially around the world, is the HIV virus. This infects our immune cells and causes them to die, which then makes us susceptible to infections.

Comments