immunodeficiency

/ˈɪmjənoʊdəˌfɪʃənsi/

When someone's body can't protect itself from infection the way it should, they suffer from an immunodeficiency. Many patients being treated for cancer have immunodeficiencies.

Your immune system is the network of cells that works to fight infection throughout your body, and when it isn't functioning well, the result is immunodeficiency. The word is rooted in the Latin immunis, "exempt," and deficere, "to fail." In other words, immunodeficiency is a failure of the system that keeps you free from infections and illness. Various diseases, genetic conditions, and medications can result in this risky situation.

Definitions of immunodeficiency

1. noun

   immunological disorder in which some part of the body's immune system is inadequate and resistance to infectious diseases is reduced
   antonyms:

   immunocompetence

   the ability to develop an immune response following exposure to an antigen

   types:

   AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome

   a serious (often fatal) disease of the immune system transmitted through blood products especially by sexual contact or contaminated needles

   agammaglobulinemia

   a rare immunological disorder characterized by the virtual absence of gamma globulin in the blood and consequent susceptibility to infection

   hypogammaglobulinemia

   an abnormally low concentration of gamma globulin in the blood and increased risk of infection

   SCID, severe combined immunodeficiency, severe combined immunodeficiency disease

   a congenital disease affecting T cells that can result from a mutation in any one of several different genes; children with it are susceptible to infectious disease; if untreated it is lethal within the first year or two of life

   ADA-SCID

   SCID resulting from mutation of a gene that codes for adenosine deaminase

   X-SCID, X-linked SCID

   SCID in male children resulting from mutation of a gene that codes for a protein on the surface of T cells that allows them to develop a growth factor receptor

   type of:

   immunological disorder

   a disorder of the immune system