The Immune System Attacks and Protects Against
- Pathogens
- Pathogenic bacteria
- Viruses
- Fungi
- Protozoa
- Balantidium coli – the only ciliated protozoan to infect humans.
- Giardia lamblia – the most common intestinal protozoan in the United States.
- Trichomonas vaginalis
- Naegleria fowleri – facultative parasite causing amoebic meningitis
- Entamoeba histolytica – causes Amebiasis, common in developing countries
- Kinetoplastid protists of the Trypanosoma and Leishmania genera (sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmania)
- Apicomplexan parasites including "Plasmodium" (malaria), "Toxoplasma" (toxoplasmosis), and "Cryptosporidia" (cryptosporidiosis)
- Parasites
- Tumors
- Allergens
- Self-proteins
Read more about this topic: Outline Of Immunology
Famous quotes containing the words immune, system, attacks and/or protects:
“The moral immune system of this country has been weakened and attacked, and the AIDS virus is the perfect metaphor for it. The malignant neglect of the last twelve years has led to breakdown of our country’s immune system, environmentally, culturally, politically, spiritually and physically.”
—Barbra Streisand (b. 1942)
“An avant-garde man is like an enemy inside a city he is bent on destroying, against which he rebels; for like any system of government, an established form of expression is also a form of oppression. The avant-garde man is the opponent of an existing system.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“Neither the wrath of Heaven nor the attacks of enemies
are as fatal as Pleasure alone when she infects the mind.”
—Silius Italicus (26–101)
“The value of a family is that it cushions and protects while the individual is learning ways of coping. And a supportive social system provides the same kind of cushioning for the family as a whole.”
—Michael W. Yogman, and T. Berry Brazelton (20th century)