Sunday, August 30, 2009

Primary Immunodeficiency vs Acquired Immunodeficiency

I have a diagnosis of hypogammaglobulinemia, meaning that my body doesn't produce enough gamma globulin to keep my immune system functioning. This is an immune deficiency. HIV/AIDS is an immune deficiency. The difference is that AIDS is an acquired immune deficiency, you get it through sex or blood (Isaac Asimov, the science fiction writer, died of AIDS: look it up. He had heart surgery when the blood supply of the United States was tainted.)

What I have is probably a primary immunodeficiency, meaning it's genetic and that I've had it since birth. My mom says I was kinda sick as a child and had measles twice, I can't really say that I remember that. I didn't think I was overly sick: I tended to get bad colds 2-3 times a year, typically when the semester started and you were exposed to all sorts of additional germs. It was probably a symptom for what I have.

A primary ID is not transmitted sexually, though it's possible that if I had kids they would run a risk of having it.

There's also secondary ID, in this case something is causing the ID, like splenolymphoma or something like that. There is actually an advantage in SID in that frequently when the underlying cause is resolved, your immune system may recover.

Obviously a secondary ID cannot be transmitted sexually.

We currently don't know specifically whether what I have is primary or secondary, we should be getting more information on that soon as I had a PET/CT scan last week.

There's probably more types of ID than these three, but I really don't feel the need to dig further at this time.

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