Question

According to slide 12, what is the relationship between opportunistic infections and the number of T cells a person has? Explain with science from the lecture given.

Answer 1

Answer:

The fewer number of T cells a person has, the more chances to be affected by an opportunistic infection. When the number of T cells reaches 200 cells/µl, the person is at risk of being infected by other infections.  

Explanation:

The whole immune system of a person who is infected with HIV infection seems to be severely affected.  When the person is not treated or the disease is in a very advanced stage, the depletion of the T- cells turns to be very sharped, especially CD4+ T cells. At this point, the immune system can not resist the attack of other microorganisms. The lower is the number of CD4+ T Cells, the higher possibility the person has to be attacked by opportunistic infections.

Classically, it has been suggested that opportunistic infections appear after the CD4 + T lymphocytes reach very low levels, such as 200 cells/µl. The number of circulating T cells can be used as an indicator and a measure of global "immune competence", and the previously mentioned amount of CD4 + T cells is an accepted universal reference used to predict the risk of having one of these opportunistic infections.