| med. |
catching disease; communicable disease; germ disease; contagious disease; infective disease; virulent disease; infection; zymosis; infectious disease (in medicine, a process caused by a microorganism that impairs a person's health. An infection, by contrast, is the invasion of and replication in the body by any of various microbial agents–including bacteria, viruses (virus), fungi (fungus), protozoans (protozoan), and worms (worm)–as well as the reaction of tissues to their presence or to the toxins that they produce. When health is not altered, the process is termed a subclinical infection. Thus, a person may be infected but not have an infectious disease. This principle is illustrated by the use of vaccines (vaccine) for the prevention of infectious diseases. For example, a virus such as that which causes measles may be attenuated (weakened) and used as an immunizing agent. The immunization is designed to produce a measles infection in the recipient but generally causes no discernible alteration in the state of health. It produces immunity to measles without producing a clinical illness (an infectious disease). Britannica Alexander Demidov) |
