The Official Site of The Foundation for Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases (FPID)

There are more than 10 million children and adults with primary immunodeficiency worldwide; more than one half million in the United States, and more than a million in India.

Foundation for Primary Immunodeficiency (FPID) was established in the US to support the education, early diagnosis, genetic counseling, therapy, and research of PID in both India and the United States.

Some Facts About PID

• A large number of patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDs), often termed as Inborn Errors of Immunity (IEI) are not even diagnosed.
• Generally, PIDs are more severe in children than in adults, and often caused by single gene defect (Monogenic).
• In adults, it may take as long as 25 years from the first symptom to making a diagnosis of PIDs.
• More than 550 different PIDs and more than 500 disease causing gene mutations have been reported. These numbers to increase each year.
• Application of gene sequencing has facilitated the identifications of various disease causing genes and PIDs.
• Prenatal and neonatal screening for IEI has also helped in identifying a certain type of PIDs at an early stage so that they could be treated early with a better outcome and cure.

Though individual PID may be rare; however, together they are not uncommon, yet very few people and clinicians know about PIDs. Therefore, there is a great need to educate the population in general regarding warning signs of PIDs, and for practicing physicians and pediatricians to diagnose and treat these patients to prevent complications and death. In India, there are very few institutions where patients with PIDs are diagnosed or treated; the majority of patients remained undiagnosed and die, contributing in part to India’s high infant mortality rate. In last 10 years FPID has changed the landscape of PIDs in India by supporting education, early diagnosis, and treatment. Foundation organizes annual Patients with PID Education Day, Physicians Education Day in IEI, and International symposium in the US and provide support for genetic testing.