Question: Is there any pathogen that the immune system can't kill?

Carmen Denman answered on 12 Mar 2015:

Hi Pol,

Great question. So, there are a number of different disease causing organisms that are so adept at evading our immune systems, that without proper treatment or support our immune systems could not battle them. One example from bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes the disease tuberculosis or TB. This bacteria is really a master of flying under the immune system radar. People can be infected for decades before the bacteria ‘activate’ to cause disease. A virus that is excellent at beating our immune system is HIV, is a virus which attacks the immune system, and weakens your ability to fight infections and disease. HIV literally stands for ‘human immuno-deficiency virus’ so as you can see it is named for really evading and beating our human immune systems.

Cheers! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Carmen