Opportunistic infections (Osmosis Jones)

 Take the opportunity before the Infections snatch it!

Have you ever wondered why getting infected by a single disease acts like a domino effect and all different sorts of infections start to rise? Such as fever and swelling of mouth when a person gets HIV? Or people getting allergies, fever, flu, loss of taste and smell once COVID-19 strikes them? Answers to these lie in knowing what opportunistic infections are? So let's dive into the disgusting world of the opportunistic infections!

(I will be referring to a movie "Osmosis Jones" throughout so make sure to watch it before you give this a read!)

In order to know OIs we first need to what the immune system really is?

The immune system is a complex network of cells and proteins that defends the body against infections. The main parts of the immune system that actively fight infections are: 

  • White blood cells

  • Antibodies

  • Complement system

  • Lymphatic system

  • Spleen

  • Thymus

  • Bone marrow

To make it simpler these are the body parts that act like soldiers for the immune system against infections in a war (1).


Now that we know what does immune system really do, we need to see how these opportunistic infections are linked to it?


Opportunistic infections (OIs) are infections that occur more often or are more severe in people with weakened immune systems than in people with healthy immune systems. They are named opportunistic because they exploit the opportunity of a weak immune system as a stronger immune system would be harder to fight with and trespass. Moreover, that defense which the weakened immune system provides allows the infection to attack with full force hence it becomes even more deadly.


The biggest question is how do they really attack?


They can be caused by a variety of germs such as:

  • Viruses: A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism (3) . This was shows in the movie where Frank eats the egg which fell into monkey habitat through which Thrax (virus) had entered the body.

Scene from the movie where Frank picks up a dirty egg and eats it, while justifying himself by the 10 seconds rule.

        This scene talks about 10 seconds rule which is not a healthy one as viruses take seconds to hop onto an object!

  • Bacteria: Single celled microbes (4). Movie showed different bacteria hanging out in Frank’s armpit which were all waiting to take the advantage of a weak immune system until Thrax came and deployed all of them to attack Frank’s health! 

Scene which shows the interaction between the bacteria in Frank's armpit and Thrax.

  • Fungi: Any of a group of spore-producing organisms feeding on organic matter, including moulds , yeast, mushrooms, and toadstools (5). Movie also talks about foot fungus which is one of such OIs.
  • Parasites: An organism that lives on or in a host organism and gets its food from or at the expense of its host.

In order to understand opportunistic infections we need some real life example of diseases that weaken the Immune system, giving the golden opportunity to the opportunistic infections.

  • COVID-19: It provides the golden opportunity to these opportunistic infections to come out of their shells and infect human body. The reason being, corona virus badly affects the immune system making it weaker. When  a body encounters the corona virus it starts to replicate it and once the virus is adequate in number, it starts to infect the immune cells. It tricks the immune cells into killing not only the infected lung cells but also the healthy ones. While immune cell is busy destroying the healthy cells other infections start to come into action. Pneumonia is caused , followed by diarrhea in some patients. Even the nerve cells are attacked by these opportunistic infections which answers why a vast majority of COVID-19 infected people loose their sense of taste and smell. One cool thing to notice here is that mostly COVID-19 starts as a normal throat ache or flu until it becomes deadly which is exactly what Thrax had planned to do in case of Frank. There he allowed opportunistic infections such as flu and sore throat to infect the body until he targets!


Scene where Thrax's way of attack is questioned.

  • HIV: Opportunistic infections are the biggest reason of mortality in HIV infected patients. Susceptibilty to these opportunistic infections rises as the count of helper T cells (immune soldiers) declines due to HIV. These cells are soldiers for immune system hence when they decline the immune system can not fight the infections and this allows multiple diseases to launch an attack with full force. Tuberculosis, hepatitis C, painful mouth and swallowing , diarrhea , fever and respiratory tract syndromes are all caused by these opportunistic infections (7). Even the movie showed Frank getting fever before he finally was submitted to the hospital.


Opportunistic infections that result due to HIV (2).

It is scary huh? Fear not we have some tips for you and so does the movie Osmosis Jones!


  • Eat healthy: Healthy food not only prevents germs from entering into the body but also strengthens the immune system by providing the required nutrients so as to avoid opportunistic infections. Moreover, the movie also mentioned this when Frank was asked why did his wife fall sick and died and he said because of germs which was later elaborated by his daughter who said that it is the way a person eats which determines how often and how bad do they get sick.


Scene where Frank's daughter explains the reason for the sickness of her mother.

  • Stay physically active: Staying physically active keeps our whole body functioning with the blood running throughout the body but if we stay lazy all the time, our body starts to get slow in functioning as well which allows the opportunistic infections to launch their attack. In movie, we could see Frank’s daughter motivating him to do workout and go on a hike with her, which he does not agree to. And through out the movie Frank was shown sick with different infections exploiting his weak immune system. Such as the pimple with puss than him having occasional flu and allergies. 

  • Take HIV medicine: This disease opens doors for a lot of opportunistic infection therefore taking regular medicines is needed to prevent any opportunistic infection from making it even more deadly. However, these medicines shall only be take if a person is medically diagnosed with HIV disease (6).

  • Hygiene is important: It is the most integral as this stops germs and all the opportunistic causing factors from entering the body. This aspect was well presented in the movie as it starts with Frank eating a filthy egg which fell into the monkey habitat and he eats it which allowed Thrax to enter his body. Moreover, Thrax told how he infected the girl who did not enjoy washing her hands.


Scene where Thrax was telling about his achievements to all the infections and bacteria in frank's body.

  • Age plays the role: With age body starts to deteriorate as well which also affects the immune system which is why we see that COVID-19 badly infects the older patients. Also the movie showed that Frank was not a young guy so he was an easy target too because his immune system was deteriorating already due to multiple reasons one of which was age!


If you are interested in knowing about how OIs exploit the weak immune system during COVID-19 then you might like the following (Mind you it is long):


You might wanna know how OIs are managed in HIV:


References and Credits:

1.https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/immune-system

2.https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/fact-sheets/what-opportunistic-infection

3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus

4.https://microbiologysociety.org/why-microbiology-matters/what-is-microbiology/bacteria.html

5.Oxford Dictionary

6.https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=134&contentid=98

7.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i-gEgtaVOI

8. Movie snippets: screen shots from the movie.




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