In this account, from Philly.com, Dr. Thomas Klein, allergist and immunologist, describes his problem. A mystery had come across his path that he didn’t think he could solve. He was seeing a 52 year-old patient named John, and John had more infections than anyone else Dr. Klein had ever seen.
During the first visit, John told Dr. Klein that he suffered from multiple episodes of sinusitis and ear infections every year, and in the last eight years, he had pneumonia a staggering four times. To top it all off, he even had a bout with life-threatening meningitis.
Dr. Klein struggled to understand how one person could have gone through so much: John was moderately healthy for a man his age, he wasn’t HIV positive, his white blood cell counts were normal, and he wasn’t taking any medications that would weaken his immune system.
Dr. Klein had a new suspicion: these were Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) symptoms.
Blood tests confirmed that John’s antibodies were dangerously low, which was making it almost impossible for his immune system to fight off infections.
While there is no cure for CVID, and John is still more susceptible to infection than many others, luckily, there are a variety of treatments available to help boost his immune system.
What may have once been a death-sentence, is now a moderate message of hope. With the right treatment, John will be able to fight back against those constant infections.