• Question: What could happen to us if we had a problem in our immune system?

    Asked by blancavalero to Carmen, Daniel, Laura, Noel, Steph on 9 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Noel Carter

      Noel Carter answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      Lots of people do and then we get what are called autoimmune diseases. A simple example is psoriasis that causes the skin to harden and become flaky. In psoriasis your own white blood cells go into the skin and this causes the skin cells to start dividing and thickening leading to the hard flaky skin you see.

      Some people lack major parts of the immune system and have Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). These people can’t fight infections so in the past lived in sterile air bubbles, but are treated with bone marrow transplants.

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