Opportunistic infection

Opportunistic infections are infections caused by organisms and usually do not cause disease in a person with a healthy immune system, but can affect people with a poorly functioning or suppressed immune system. They need an "opportunity" to infect a person.

Causes

• immunodeficiencyor immunosuppressioncaused by:
  • Malnutrition
  • Recurrent infections
  • Organ transplantrecipients
  • Chemotherapyfor cancer
  • AIDSor HIV-infection
  • Geneticpredisposition
• Skindamage
• Antibiotictreatment
• Medical procedures

Types of infections

These infections include:

• Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia

Treatment

Treatment depends on the type of opportunistic infection, but usually involves antibiotics.

nl:Opportunistische infectie

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunistic+infection Wikipedia article Opportunistic infection.