Words / O / Medicine

opportunistic infection

phrase/ˌɒpətjuːˈnɪstɪk ɪnˈfekʃən/

B2CEFR level
65/100Rarity: rare
TechnicalRegister

An infection caused by an organism that rarely harms people with intact immunity but exploits immunocompromise.

Pneumocystis pneumonia is a classic opportunistic infection in advanced HIV.

Topic: Infectious disease in Medical English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More medicine words: Infectious disease