opportunistic infection

Chapter: 4
An infection which affects an immunocompromised host. In a sense, all infections are opportunistic, but we usually mean only those unusual infections that are seen only in immunocompromised hosts. The offending organism may be protozoal, viral, bacterial, fungal, spirochetal, or even algal. The key point is that if the same organism were introduced into an immunocompetent host, most likely, nothing would happen.

See Also: