what is impared immune system?

Answer 1

an immune system that dont work properly??

Answer 2

Jayne is right. An impaired immune system doesn't work properly and defend its host body (usually we are talking about human beings and their immune systems) from infection.

Some drugs and some diseases can impair our immune system. The one everyone knows about is HIV/AIDS - acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Have a look at the wiki pages on immune system and AIDS.

Our immune system is quite complex. I'll come back and write a little more about it in a while.

[Edit] - this is going to be kind of long, but there isn't any other way to do the subject justice unless you already know about this stuff (in which case you wouldn't be asking the question).

Okay - in order to keep us free from any other nasty disease causing bugs we have a bunch of defence mechanisms.

General Defences:
Some of these mechanisms are mechanical barriers - like our skin. Bugs can stay on the surface, but they can't get through (unless you have a cut or other damaged area of the skin) and we then wash them off periodically - or most of us do, at any rate. Other defences are: stomach acid to protect the GastroIntestinal Tract, and the special lining of the air passages which makes mucous and has little hair cells (with cilia) to capture particles and push them up and out of the lungs.

Immune System
Circulating in the blood are a bunch of cells and some special chemicals which are able to detect foreign intruders and destroy them. This is possible because every cell in our body is tagged and labelled in a special way that our immune cells can recognize that it is our own body's cell. Other cells without the special tags can get attacked either by big cells (macrophages) that can engulf them (phagocytosis) and destroy the intruders.

We have a special tagging system to identify things that are bad. We can tag these things with special proteins called Antibodies. These protective proteins have special ends which are shaped to recognize and lock on to certain things our body has learned are bad for us - certain viruses and bacteria, and anything else that should not belong in our blood. Anything tagged with these antibodies can be detected by the white blood cells (including the macrophages) and destroyed. The special cells that make the antibodies are called B-cells or B-lymphocytes.

Another group of lymphocytes help to coordinate the immune system. We call these T-cells.

Impaired Immune System
So if you have HIV which can attack the T-cells and kill them off, there is nothing to stimulate the cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells. The ability to recognize disease is decreased and other diseases begin to take hold.

Other parts of the immune system can be impaired. Some people naturally do not produce one type of antibody. In some cancers of the white blood cells (leukaemia or lymphoma) there are many white blood cells produced but they are abnormal and don't do their jobs properly allowing infection to get through unchallenged.

There are some chemicals/drugs/medicines which can block various parts of the immune system - these are called Immunosuppressant Drugs and they are used where we wish to turn off the immune system for one reason or another.

I hope this is helpful. If there is anything I can clear up for you, email me.

Cheers!

Answer 3

It's not working quite right. It's easier for you to catch different "bugs" Many things cause your immune system to not work right, exhaustion, malnourishment, and one of the worst case scenarios, AIDS.

Answer 4

have you got a House in Virginia??? (HIV)