Primary immunodeficiencies: a field in its infancy.

A paradigm shift is occurring in the field of primary immunodeficiencies, with revision of the definition of these conditions and a considerable expansion of their limits. Inborn errors of immunity were initially thought to be confined to a few rare, familial, monogenic, recessive traits impairing the development or function of one or several leukocyte subsets and resulting in multiple, recurrent, opportunistic, and fatal infections in infancy. A growing number of exceptions to each of these conventional qualifications have gradually accumulated. It now appears that most individuals suffer from at least one of a multitude of primary immunodeficiencies, the dissection of which is helping to improve human medicine while describing immunity in natura.