Question: what would happen if we didnt have a strong immune system ?

Max Jamilly answered on 12 Mar 2018:

Hey Becca! Great question. A good way to think about this is to look at the symptoms of people whose immune systems have been weakened. This can happen due to cancers affecting the white blood cells or due to infections like HIV with lead to immune deficiency. Some patients who receive organ transplants also have to take medicines that weaken their immune systems to stop the body rejecting the new organs.

All these immunodeficient patients (people with weak immune systems) suffer from much more frequent infections. Even if a patient lives in a really clean environment like a hospital, the environment is full of things which can cause infections. Normally our immune system does a great job of fighting these off, but if it’s weakened then they are more likely to cause a major infection.