Disease Tolerance as a Defense Strategy

Enduring Tolerance

During an infection, the host organism deploys multiple defense strategies. Disease resistance, the process by which the immune system decreases pathogen burden is perhaps the most well-known, and certainly the mechanism that is best studied and understood. Other defense strategies range from pathogen avoidance, through tolerance of pathogen-induced tissue damage, and endurance of the overall pathogen burden. Medzhitov et al. (p. 936 ) review the concept of disease tolerance and suggest that particularly in animals, it is an overlooked mechanism of host defense.