CVID

CVID is Common Variable Immune Deficiency, I have it, and it tends to play one of my life's defining roles, along with my faith, kitchen time, and other more private pieces.


Here's a quick introduction to CVID:

'One person out of fifty-thousand has it. It's rare. For comparison, one in thirty-one-thousand has cystic fibrosis, one in seven-hundred has multiple sclerosis, and seven in one-hundred have diabetes. It's probably congenital, though symptoms tend to first appear in adolescence and early adulthood rather than at birth. It affects the B-cells and to a lesser extent T-cells, and makes the body unable to create certain antibodies (IgGs) against capsular bacteria and certain other microorganisms. People with CVID get lots of chronic and severe respiratory infections, and tend to get joint pain, digestive problems, and debilitating fatigue. Many vaccines, including the pneumonia shot, fail to produce any antibody response: they don't work for people with CVID.'

From a well written and accurate rant by Z.A. MacCallum