Hypersensitivity Reactions

When the immune system overreacts · Week 2
A hypersensitivity reaction is the immune system overreacting to an antigen. The body is harmed by its own response, not by the trigger itself. There are four types. Remember them with ACID. Click each one.

The overreaction

A picture of what the immune system gets wrong in this type.
Pick a type.
Pick a typeACID: Allergic · antiBody · Complex · Delayed

What happens

Related ideas: in autoimmunity the immune system attacks its own body. Family history raises the risk, and women are hit more often than men. In immunodeficiency the immune system is weakened, as in HIV, cancer or chemo, diabetes, poor nutrition, a removed spleen, or stress. Both differ from hypersensitivity, where the system is too active against an outside trigger.