Mycobacterium avium Complex - making the worst of an opportunity

One of the downsides of recent advances in medicine and healthcare is that more people live longer! This in itself doesn't seem like a bad thing, and most of us would be quite happy to live longer. However, health advances have permitted a wide range of treatments that mean that an increasing number of us are continuing our lives with immune systems that are punching below their weight, the immune-compromised. This is where the downside occurs. A greater population of immune-compromised people has seen the emergence of a new set of diseases that affect them. These organisms are called 'opportunists'; they take advantage of a weakened immune system to cause infection.