epizootic

epizootics (plural)
epizoötic (alternative)
epizoodic (alternative)
epizudic (alternative)

From French épizootique, animal equivalent of epidemic, from épizootie, irregularly formed from Ancient Greek ἐπί (epí) + ζῷον (zôion, “animal”).
By surface analysis, epi- + zo- + -otic. Use of the word in the second sense, "an ailment", was likely originally a reference to a particular epizootic ailment. Both senses are attested since at least the 1800s, and the pronunciation with five syllables is explicitly attested since then as well. Dialectal pronunciation of the second sense with four syllables is attested since at least the 1910s in spellings like "epizudic" and is suggested by 1870s references to a shortened form of the word, "zooty".

At the same time as an epidemic of the flu broke out among the people, an epizootic of the swine flu broke out among their pigs.

[…]but it can be asserted with confidence that Natal will for some years yet be free from the possibility of an invasion of the disease to the same degree as the epizootic of 1896 and 1897.

1901 July 5, H. Watkins-Pitchford, “The Umvoti Outbreak”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 9, page 247:

(epidemiology) An occurrence of a disease or disorder in a population of non-human animals at a frequency higher than that expected in a given time period.


epizootic

en-adj

epizootic (comparative more epizootic, superlative most epizootic)

more epizootic (comparative)
most epizootic (superlative)
epizoötic (alternative)
epizoodic (alternative)
epizudic (alternative)

Epizootic plague occurred in the mice following introduction of rats from Europe.

As much attention is being drawn to the subject of epizootic abortion in bovines, [...]

1913 September, J. J. Desmond, “An enzootic of contagious abortion in cattle”, in American Journal of Veterinary Medicine, volume VIII, number 9, page 470:

These are known respectively as the hair lung worm and the thread lung worm. The former of these is probably the more widely diffused, but the latter is more epizootic in flocks than the former.

1914, Thomas Shaw, Management and Feeding of Sheep, page 398:

1919 March 19, author not named, The Mud Larks, in Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, 2004 Gutenberg edition,
I handed it back to him, explaining that he had come to the wrong shop--unless he were a horse, of course. If he were and could provide his own nosebag, head-stall and Army Form 1640, testifying that he was guiltless of mange, ophthalmia or epizootic lymphangitis, I would do what I could for him.

The parasites important in Britain do, however, by themselves constitute a most serious source of loss to pig breeders — probably at least as serious as that caused by the various more spectacular but more epizootic bacterial diseases.

1933, British Veterinary Journal, volume 89, page 74:

(epidemiology) Like or having to do with an epizootic: a widespread outbreak of disease among nonhuman animals.


epidemic

epidemics (plural)
epidemick (alternative)
epidemical (alternative)

/ˌɛpɪˈdɛmɪk/

From French épidémique, from épidémie, from Medieval Latin epidēmia, reanalysis of plural Late Latin epidēmia, from Ancient Greek ἐπιδήμιος (epidḗmios), from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) + δῆμος (dêmos, “people”). By surface analysis, epi- (“on”) + demic (“of the people”).

surf

(epidemiology) An occurrence of a disease or disorder in a human population at a frequency higher than that expected in a given time period; an episode of outbreak and subsequent high prevalence.


RR

en-noun

RR (countable and uncountable, plural RRs)

(statistics, epidemiology) Initialism of relative risk.


vector

Learned borrowing from Latin vector (“carrier, transporter”), from vehō (“I carry, I transport, I bear”), also ultimately the root of English vehicle.
The “person or entity that passes along an urban legend or other meme” sense derives from the disease sense.
The mathematics sense was coined by Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton in 1846.

coin

(epidemiology) A carrier of a disease-causing agent.

(molecular biology) A DNA molecule used to carry genetic information from one organism into another.

vector

These days, their primary job is to insist that Facebook is a fun place to share baby photos and sell old couches, not a vector for hate speech, misinformation, and violent extremist propaganda.

2020 October 12, Andrew Marantz, “Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itself”, in The New Yorker:

(sociology) A person or entity that passes along an urban legend or other meme.

levittäjä

sociology: person or entity that passes along an urban legend or other meme

(psychology) A recurring psychosocial issue that stimulates growth and development in the personality.


ever

From Middle English ever, from Old English ǣfre, originally a phrase whose first element undoubtedly consists of Old English ā (“ever, always”) + in (“in”) + an element possibly from feorh (“life, existence”) (dative fēore). Compare Old English ā tō fēore (“ever in life”), Old English feorhlīf (“life”).
Sense 5 of the adverb was likely formed by association with never, which also carries the meaning of did not in colloquial Singaporean and Malaysian English. Also, compare Chinese 有 … 過 /有 … 过 (yǒu ... guò / jau⁵ ... gwo³, “has […] before”).

sl

euer (alternative obsolete)
e'er (alternative poetic)
ev'r (alternative poetic)
eva (alternative dialectal)
evah (alternative dialectal)
eva' (alternative dialectal)
evuh (alternative dialectal)
iver (alternative dialectal)
ivver (alternative dialectal)

This family empathy measure is highly related to ever use of birth control but not to any measure of continuous use.

1965, Reuben Hill, The family and population control: a Puerto Rican experiment in social change:

(epidemiology) Occurring at any time, occurring even but once during a timespan.


aggregation

en-noun

aggregation (countable and uncountable, plural aggregations)

/æɡɹəˈɡeɪʃən/

From Latin aggregātiō, from aggregō (“aggregate”).

(epidemiology) The majority of the parasite population concentrated into a minority of the host population.


enzootic

(epidemiology) A disease that is consistently prevalent in a population of non-human animals in a limited region, season, or climate.


pandemic

en-adj

pandemic (comparative more pandemic, superlative most pandemic)

more pandemic (comparative)
most pandemic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek πάνδημος (pándēmos, “of or belonging to all the people, public”) + English -ic (suffix forming adjectives from nouns with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’). πάνδημος is derived from παν- (pan-, prefix meaning ‘all, every’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect, shepherd”)) + δῆμος (dêmos, “the common people; free citizens, sovereign people”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- (“to divide, share”)). Compare Late Latin pandēmus (“affecting all the people, general, public”).

cog

The chaotic breakdown of public health as World War I dragged on is widely recognized as exacerbating the disease burden of the pandemic outbreak of influenza in 1918.

Among diſeaſes, ſome do more generally haunt a Country, by reaſon of a certain property in the air, produced through a particular influence of the climat; and the fuming of malign ſtreams out of the earth; whence ſuch diſeaſes are termed Endemick or Pandemick: Others, though they are general, do only rage at a certain ſeaſon of the year, and are therefore called Epidemick; [...]

[[1672?], Gideon Harvey, “Of the Original and Contagion of Consumptions”, in Morbus Anglicus, or A Theoretick and Practical Discourse of Consumptions, and Hypochondriack Melancholy. […], London: Printed for William Thackeray, […], →OCLC, pages 1–2:

Diſeaſes are likewise endemic and pandemic. [...] The pandemic affect the People in general at one and the ſame Time, without Regard to Sex, Age, Condition, or Temperament; ſuch as peſtilential Diſeaſes.

1754, R[ichard] Brookes, “Of Pathology”, in An Introduction to Physic and Surgery: […], London: Printed for J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 41:

Avian–human influenza A reassortant viruses with the phenotype of restricted replication in primates would not be able to spread efficiently from human to human, and therefore viruses with these gene constellations would not be expected to give rise to pandemic human influenza viruses. This represents one possible obstacle to the emergence of new pandemic influenza A viruses in humans, namely, the presence of avian–human influenza gene constellations that restrict viral replication in primates.

1990, John Treanor, Brian Murphy, “Genes Involved in the Restriction of Replication of Avian Influenza A Viruses in Primates”, in Edouard Kerstak, R. G. Marusyk, F. A. Murphy, M[arc] H[ubert] V[ictor] van Regenmortel, editors, Virus Variability, Epidemiology, and Control (Applied Virology Research; 2), New York, N.Y., London: Plenum Medical Book Company, →ISBN, page 165:

(epidemiology) Of a disease: epidemic over a wide geographical area and affecting a large proportion of the population; also, of or pertaining to a disease of this nature.


pandemic

Those diseases which have some strong resemblance in their general characters, and attack many individuals in a large extent of country at about the same time, are commonly called epidemics. If all, or about all the inhabitants of a country be similarly attacked, at or near the same time, with a particular complaint, it is more properly called a pandemic.

1832 September 5, J. A. Allen, “Epidemics. Remarks on the Etiology and Character of Epidemics.”, in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, volume VII, number 4, Boston, Mass.: Printed and published by Clapp & Hull, […], →OCLC, page 53:

The full and correct theory of influenza will not be reached by the great pandemics only. On the other hand some very localized epidemics may prove to be signal instances for the pathology, although they do not bear upon the source of the great historic waves of influenza.

1894, Charles Creighton, “Influenzas and Epidemic Agues”, in A History of Epidemics in Britain, volume II (From the Extinction of Plague to the Present Time), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: At the University Press, →OCLC, page 431:

The outbreak [of potato blight] in Ireland was part of a pandemic—that is, the disease suddenly became widespread and destructive almost simultaneously in several European countries and in the United States as well. [...] [T]he pathogen increased and became widely distributed, so that when the weather became generally and extremely favorable, as happened during the years of the pandemic, it could attack rapidly and in force over a wide area at once.

1953, Jessie I. Wood, “Three Billion Dollars a Year”, in Alfred Stefferud, editor, The Yearbook of Agriculture 1953: Plant Diseases (83d Congress, 1st Session, House Document; no. 122), Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 6, column 1:

The American pandemic of men's violence against women is one of the greatest tragedies of our time.

2000, Jackson Katz, “The Sounds of Silence: Notes on the Personal Politics of Men’s Leadership in Gender-based Violence Prevention Education”, in Nancy Lesko, editor, Masculinities at School (Research on Men and Masculinities; 11), Thousand Oaks, Calif., London: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, part 4 (Pedagogies, Polices, and Leadership), page 283:

In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call "the next big one."

2013 January–February, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency [review of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic (2012) by David Quammen]”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, New Haven, Conn.: Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-11-10, page 64:

What I spend a lot of time worrying about are things like pandemics. You can’t build walls in order to prevent the next airborne lethal flu from landing on our shores.

2016 October, Scott Dadich, quoting Barack Obama, “Barack Obama Talks AI, Robo Cars, and the Future of the World”, in Wired, →ISSN:

WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. [...] We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus. And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled, at the same time.

2020 March 11, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “WHO Director-General’s Opening Remarks at the Media Briefing on COVID-19”, in World Health Organization, archived from the original on 2020-03-11:

When the pandemic broke out, transport as a site of transmission was therefore at the forefront of medical experts' minds. And it was something they were not afraid to address publicly.

2020 April 8, Dr David Turner, “How railway staff were conduits and victims of a pandemic”, in Rail, page 31:

We are certainly right now, in this country, out of the pandemic phase- namely, we don't have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now. So if you're saying, 'are we out of the pandemic phase in this country?', we are.

2022 April 26, Anthony Fauci, 6:12 from the start, in Dr. Fauci on why the U.S. is ‘out of the pandemic phase’, PBS NewsHour, archived from the original on 2022-04-28:

(epidemiology) A pandemic disease; a disease that affects a wide geographical area and a large proportion of the population.


immune

From Middle English, from Middle French immun, from Latin immūnis (“exempt from public service”), from in- (“not”) + mūnus (“service”).

der

Susceptibles effectively exposed to cases become cases in the next time period; cases recovering from the infection accumulate as immunes.

1965, Rene J. Dubos, James G. Hirsch, editors, Bacterial and Mycotic Infections of Man, page 742:

(epidemiology) A person who is not susceptible to infection by a particular disease


prevalence

en-noun

prevalence (countable and uncountable, plural prevalences)

(epidemiology) The total number of cases of a disease in a given statistical population at a given time, divided by the number of individuals in that population.

اِنْتِشَار

number of cases compared to a total population


sentinel

sentinels (plural)
centinel (alternative obsolete)

1570s, from Middle French sentinelle, from Old Italian sentinella (perhaps via a notion of "perceive, watch", compare Italian sentire (“to feel, hear, smell”)), from Latin sentiō (“feel, perceive by the senses”). See sense, sentient.

uder

sentinel animals can be used to explore endemic diseases.

(attributive, medicine, epidemiology) A sign of a health risk (e.g. a disease, an adverse effect).


cluster

→ Catalan: clúster

→ French: cluster

→ German: Cluster

→ Italian: cluster

→ Japanese: クラスター (kurasutā)

→ Portuguese: cluster

→ Russian: кла́стер (kláster)

→ Spanish: clúster, cluster

→ Swedish: kluster

High Performance Computing Center, Stuttgart

The noun is derived from Middle English cluster (“bunch, cluster, spray; compact body or mass, ball”) [and other forms], from Old English cluster, clyster (“cluster, bunch, branch”), from Proto-Germanic *klas-, *klus- (“to clump, lump together”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up; to clench; to amass”)) + *-þrą (suffix forming nouns denoting an instrument or tool). The English word is probably a doublet of clot.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* Dutch klister (“cluster”) (dialectal)
* Icelandic klasi (“cluster; bunch of grapes”)
* Low German Kluuster (“cluster”)
* Swedish kluster (“cluster”)

nb...

closter, clostre, clouster, clowster, clustre, clustyr

բույլ

A leukemia cluster has developed in the town.

A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.

(epidemiology) A group of cases of the same disease occurring around the same place or time.


MSW

en-noun

MSW (countable and uncountable, plural MSWs)

(epidemiology) Initialism of men who have sex with women.


CFR

CFR (countable and uncountable, plural CFRs)

The CFR for the SARS epidemic was around 9 to 10 percent, while MERS, first identified in 2012, is around 35 percent.

2020 March 12, Matt Stieb, “Does the Coronavirus Think I’m Old?”, in New York:

case fatality rate
case fatality rate#English

(countable, pathology, epidemiology, statistics) Initialism of case fatality rate.


SIR

(epidemiology) Initialism of susceptible-infected/infectious-removed/recovered.


susceptible

From Late Latin susceptibilis, from Latin susceptus, from suscipiō.

In either instance a decrease in the number of susceptibles, by making the spread of virus less easy, tends towards a stage at which the infection dies out.

1983, Topley & Wilson, editors, General Microbiology & Immunity, →ISBN, page 417:

(epidemiology) A person who is vulnerable to being infected by a certain disease


confounding

Confounding is defined as the confusion or distortion of measures of association between exposure and outcome as a result of third (or more) variable(s).

2013, Macera CA, Shaffer R, Shaffer PM, Introduction to Epidemiology: Distribution and Determinants of Disease,, Cengage Learning, page 158:

(epidemiology) The process by which an apparent association between an exposure and an outcome is actually explained by another factor.


epidemiologist

In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.”

2013 January 22, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, United States: Sigma Xi, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-02-09, page 64:

(epidemiology) A scientist (often a medical doctor) who specializes in epidemiology.

համաճարակաբան

scientist who specializes in epidemiology


incidence

incidence (countable and uncountable, plural incidences)

From Middle French incidence, from Medieval Latin incidentia (“a falling upon”), from Latin incidens, present participle of incidere (“to fall upon”), from in (“on”) + cadere (“to fall”).

der

Coordinate term: prevalence

(epidemiology) A measure of the rate of new occurrence of a given medical condition in a population within a specified period of time.

發病率 /发病率

epidemiology: measure of the rate of new occurrence of a given medical condition


spillover

en-noun

spillover (countable and uncountable, plural spillovers)

We’re not establishing the kind of safe practices that will minimize the opportunity for spillover. If we better understood where these viruses are circulating and understood that ecology, we would have the potential to disrupt and minimize the risk of spillover.

2020 March 12, Kevin Berger, “The Man Who Saw the Pandemic Coming”, in Nautilus, archived from the original on 2020-03-15:

(epidemiology) The spread of infectious disease between different species of animal and particularly to humans.


MSM

MSM (countable and uncountable, plural MSM or MSMs)

men who have sex with men
w:men who have sex with men

(epidemiology) Initialism of men who have sex with men.


communicable

en-adj

communicable (comparative more communicable, superlative most communicable)

more communicable (comparative)
most communicable (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-communicable.wav

From Old French communicable, Latin communicabilis.

(but the last two are not interchangeable in formal registers)

(epidemiology, of a disease) Able to be transmitted between people or animals.

přenosný

able to be transmitted between people or species


infective

It is evident that the greater the number of susceptibles, then the greater the increase in the number of infectives.

2002, Belinda Barnes, Glenn Fulford, Mathematical Modeling with Case Studies, →ISBN, page 140:

(epidemiology) A person who is capable of spreading a disease by infecting others.


age standardized rate

en-noun

age standardized rate (plural age standardized rates)

(medicine, epidemiology) The incidence rate of a particular disease in a population if that population had a standard age structure.


ASR

age standardized rate
age standardized rate#English

(medicine, epidemiology) Initialism of age standardized rate.


IFR

For quotations using this term, see Citations:IFR.

(epidemiology) Initialism of infection fatality rate.


source control

But the opposite concern also exists: egress, or transmission of particles from the wearer to the outside world. Historically, much less research has been conducted on egress, but controlling it—also known as “source control”—is crucial to stopping the person-to-person spread of a disease. Obviously, society-wide source control becomes very important during a pandemic.

2020 April 22, Zeynep Tufekci et al., “Real Reason to Wear a Mask”, *The Atlantic* (online)

(epidemiology, public health) Measures applied to potentially-infected people that reduce their chances of infecting others.


incubation period

incubation period (plural incubation periods)

Since 1850s, from earlier period of incubation, attested in that now obsolete sense since late 1820s, which is a calque of French période d'incubation (attested since mid-1810s), itself a calque from Latin periodus incubationis (attested since 1770s).

1854, Medical Notes on the Wreck of the San Francisco, by William P. Buel
There is to all diseases a period of incubation; distinct and definite in the exanthematae, less so, but still well marked, in fevers and other diseases. This period of incubation sufficiently defines the period of the development of disease in emigrant vessels. I have been led into these remarks by the fact that, when the cholera manifested its existence on board the San Francisco, that vessel had been about seven days out of port, between five and six of them subsequent to the wreck. Thus, the incubation period corresponds almost exactly with that of the emigrant ships.

(epidemiology) The time elapsed between an exposure to a pathogenic organism, a chemical or radiation, and the appearance of signs and symptoms.


superspreader

superspreaders (plural)
super-spreader (alternative)
super spreader (alternative)

In the SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] outbreak, New York forcibly quarantined a man suspected of having the disease after he refused to isolate himself. That's a real breach of liberty, but suppose he had been an irresponsible superspreader like Typhoid Mary and caused the disease to spin out of control?

2003 May 2, Nicholas D. Kristof, “Lock ’Em Up”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 2021-06-09:

Another SARS superspreader took the invader by the hand to Singapore's 1,200-bed Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Crowded emergency departments and highly mobile medical staff did the honors with more help from superspreaders. One patient alone infected 24 health-care workers, 15 patients, and 12 visitors. […] It [the SARS-CoV-1 virus] quickly found a superspreader in a dedicated hospital laundry attendant who ignored his diarrhea and pneumonia and doggedly stuck to his duties. The workaholic generated 137 infections among patients, doctors, and nurses.

2006, Andrew Nikiforuk, “Nemesis: The Global Hospital”, in Pandemonium: Bird Flu, Mad Cow Disease, and Other Biological Plagues of the 21st Century, Toronto: Viking Canada, →ISBN, page 230:

One of the most notorious superspreaders was Typhoid Mary, an Irish cook who was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever. […] Another well-known superspreader was Gaetan Dugas, considered patient zero for the emergence of HIV in North America; he was a promiscuous homosexual with an estimated 250 partners per annum who remained sexually active until he died at thirty-two years of age.

2008, Peter J. Hudson, Sarah E. Perkins, Isabella M. Cattadori, “The Emergence of Wildlife Disease and the Application of Ecology”, in Richard S. Ostfeld, Felicia Keesing, Valerie T. Eviner, editors, Infectious Disease Ecology: The Effects of Ecosystems on Disease and of Disease on Ecosystems, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 358:

A major concern is that with both SARS and MERS [Middle East respiratory syndrome], a few patients inexplicably became "superspreaders" who infected huge numbers of other people. At a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, in 2015, one man with MERS transmitted it to 82 patients.

2020 January 24, Denise Grady, “Chicago Woman Is Second Patient in U.S. with Wuhan Coronavirus”, in The New York Times, published 25 February 2020 (updated), →ISSN, archived from the original on 2021-11-01:

[S]cientists have learned a lot about airborne respiratory fluids and, in particular, what might make someone a superspreader, or superemitter. Certain attributes, such as the shape of one’s body, and certain behaviours, such as loud talking or breathing fast, appear to have a major role in spreading the disease..

2020 October 29, Fedor Kossakovski, “Why Some People Are Superspreaders and How the Body Emits Coronavirus”, in National Geographic, Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, archived from the original on 2021-10-21:

A person infected with a pathogen who is responsible for spreading it to many other people.

超級傳播者 /超级传播者

In June, the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union], on behalf of half a dozen detainees housed in various Orange County jails, sued the sheriff in state court, arguing that the jails were superspreaders-in-waiting: the cramped quarters, inadequate cleaning protocols, and severely limited hygiene make jails an ideal hunting ground for the virus.

2020 December, Laura Thompson, “Southern California Jails Have Become COVID Superspreaders”, in Mother Jones, San Francisco: Foundation for National Progress, →ISSN, archived from the original on 2021-08-13:

As school districts around the U.S. continue to grapple with whether to reopen classrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic, data shows Florida started in-person learning without turning schools into superspreaders.

2021 March 17, Arian Campo-Flores, “Florida Schools Reopened Without Becoming Covid-19 Superspreaders”, in The Wall Street Journal, New York: Dow Jones & Company, →ISSN, archived from the original on 2021-10-17:

It [the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference] will be the largest summit ever hosted in Britain. Organizers are scrambling to make sure the conference does not morph into a superspreader event.

2021 October 28, William Booth, “30,000 People Gather for a Climate Summit in a Pandemic. What Could Go Wrong?”, in The Washington Post, Washington, DC, →ISSN, archived from the original on 2021-10-28:

Millions of football fans without masks have been going to games, cheering for their pro, college, high school teams. Now, at the start of the season, many epidemiologists strongly advised against this. They worried that games could become superspreaders.

2021 October 30, Scott Simon, Wade Goodwyn, “Football Fans Are Packing into Stadiums Without Masks, but It Hasn’t Been an Issue”, in NPR, archived from the original on 2021-11-02:

(also attributively) An event or place which leads to the spread of an infectious disease to many people.


IEA

(epidemiology) Initialism of International Epidemiological Association.


NNH

number needed to harm
number needed to harm#English

(epidemiology) Initialism of number needed to harm.


zoophilism

They make the interesting suggestion that since cattle are rare in Kigezi christyi has had to abandon its zoophilism and become anthropophilic.

1951, Meillon de Botha, “Species and varieties of malaria vectors in Africa and their bionomics”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 421:

(epidemiology) A preference of a parasite or vector to feed on non-human animals


patient zero

patient zero (plural patient zeros or patient zeroes or patients zero)

patient zeros (plural)
patient zeroes (plural)
patients zero (plural)
patient 0 (alternative)

Originally patient O (standing for out of California), referring to Gaëtan Dugas, a superspreader of AIDS who was at the time erroneously believed to have introduced the virus to the United States. The letter O was later misinterpreted as a zero.

When epidemiologists trace the evolution of a disease, they look for the first individual known to have contracted it, who is given the inglorious lavel "Patient Zero". For example, the official Patient Zero for the AIDS epidemic was a South African man who died in 1959 (though it is suspected that the disease originated as early as the 1920s.

2005, John De Graaf, David Wann, Thomas H. Naylor, Redefining Progress, Affluenza: the all-consuming epidemic, 2nd illustrated edition, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, →ISBN, page 128:

When I think of Gaëtan Dugas, the French-Canadian flight attendant who paid his first known visit to a New York City bathhouse on October 31, 1980, the man to whom all the city's initial cases of AIDS would be traced back—hence the moniker he was given: patient zero […]

2008, Alistair McCartney, The end of the World book: a novel, Terrace Books, →ISBN, page 298:

The term patient zero refers to the first infected patient in an epidemological investigation that is likely responsible for the spread of a particular infectious disease. Randy Shilts, author of And the band Played On, chronicled Darrow's investigation. It was Shilts who proposed that a homosexual Canadian flight attendant was likely patient zero. The flight attendant admitted to anonymous, unprotected sex with as many as 2,500 partners, even after he developed karposis sarcoma. As research continued, though, earlier cases of AIDS were reported (table I6-2), disproving the patient zero theory.

2009, Teri Shors, Understanding viruses, illustrated edition, Jones & Bartlett Learning, →ISBN, page 443:

(epidemiology) The initial patient in the population of an epidemiological investigation.


vulnerability index

vulnerability index (plural vulnerability indexes or vulnerability indices)

vulnerability indexes (plural)
vulnerability indices (plural)

(epidemiology, public policy) A measure of the exposure of a population to some hazard.


herd immunity

herd immunity (countable and uncountable, plural herd immunities)

From herd + immunity, first identified in herds of cattle.

During the years that the herd was being replenished by purchase abortions were frequent, but that practice was discontinued, and the heifer calves born in the herd have been raised. [...] Thus a herd immunity seems to have developed as a result both of keeping the aborting cows and raising the calves.

1917 January, Adolph Eichhorn, George M. Potter, “Prevention and Treatment”, in Contagious Abortion of Cattle (United States Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin; 790), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 9:

The Spread of Bacterial Infection. The Problem of Herd-Immunity [title]. [...] Consideration of the results obtained over the last five years, [...] has led us to believe that the question of immunity as an attribute of a herd should be studied as a separate problem, closely related to, but in many ways distinct from, the problem of the immunity of an individual host.

1923 May, W[illiam] W[hiteman] C[arlton] Topley, G[raham] S[elby] Wilson, “The Spread of Bacterial Infection. The Problem of Herd-Immunity.”, in The Journal of Hygiene, volume 21, number 3, London: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, →PMID, archived from the original on 2020-04-02, page 243:

It is likely that many animals in affected herds have developed an inapparent or nonclinical form of the disease because there have been no records of recurrence of the disease on the same farm—an indication that a herd immunity developed.

1956, L. O. Mott, C. A. Manthei, “Miscellaneous Diseases of Cattle”, in Alfred Stefferud, editor, Yearbook of Agriculture 1956: Animal Diseases (United States Congress, House Document; no. 344), Washington, D.C.: The United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 329, column 1:

The larger the number of immunised people in the community the less easy is the spread of disease from one person to another. [...] For the purpose of creating ‘herd immunity’, as this process is sometimes called, it is necessary to achieve 80 per cent immunisation of the community.

1978, G. J. Ebrahim, Practical Mother and Child Health in Developing Countries (Macmillan Tropical Community Health Manuals), revised edition, London: The Macmillan Press, →ISBN; ELBS edition, London: English Language Book Society and Macmillan Education, 1980 (1982 printing), →ISBN, page 56:

Jews, long exposed to some diseases in the confined quarters of European ghettos, had developed herd immunities through a long process of natural selection.

1994, Alan M. Kraut, “‘The Old Inquisition had Its Rack and Thumbscrews’: Immigrant Health and the American Workplace”, in Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the “Immigrant Menace”, New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, →ISBN; Johns Hopkins Paperbacks edition, Baltimore, Md., London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, →ISBN, page 147:

The disease incidence appeared to have a cyclic course. After an outbreak, the disease and virus disappeared and the herd immunity gradually waned in the next 2 to 3 years. A new outbreak was the consequence of the reintroduction of transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV).

1995, Luis Enjuanes, Bernard A. M. Van der Zeijst, “Molecular Basis of Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus Epidemiology”, in Stuart Siddell, editor, The Coronaviridae (The Viruses), New York, N.Y.: Plenum Press, →ISBN, page 337:

For herd immunity to occur, the vaccine must prevent transmission of the virus as well as prevent disease.

2006, Warren Levinson, Review of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, 9th edition, New York, N.Y.: Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 247:

Some proponents of natural rearing condemn vaccinations; they prefer using homeopathic nosodes (medicine prepared from the diseased part or discharge of something, which supposedly works as well as vaccination). These people point to their dogs' good health as proof that nosodes work. However, their good fortune is probably the result of herd immunity, that is, as long as most dogs are vaccinated, the unvaccinated dogs rarely come in contact with the infectious agents.

2007, D. Caroline Coile, “Maintaining Your Pom’s Health and Happiness”, in Pomeranians for Dummies (For Dummies), Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part III (Caring for Your Pom from Head to Paw), page 152:

Herd immunity is based on the notion that if a herd (a population or a group) is mostly protected from a disease by immunization then the chance that a major epidemic will occur is limited. Jonas Salk, one of the developers of the polio vaccine, suggested that if a herd immunity level of 85% exists in a population, a polio epidemic will not occur. Herd immunity is also viewed as the resistance a population has to the invasion and spread of an infectious disease.

2010, Ray M. Merrill, “Practical Disease Concepts in Epidemiology”, in Introduction to Epidemiology, 5th edition, Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, →ISBN, page 65:

Many examples of herd immunity have been described, illustrating the importance of indirect protection for predicting the short- and long-term impact of vaccination programs, for justifying them economically, and for understanding the nature of the immunity induced by various vaccines.

2011 April 1, Paul Fine, Ken Eames, David L. Heymann, “‘Herd Immunity’: A Rough Guide”, in Clinical Infectious Diseases, volume 52, number 7, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, →PMID, page 911:

At above 80% immunity, the simulation indicates that no transmission can occur, even when mosquito densities are high (5 per person). Similar herd immunities (82–87%) halt transmisson of poliomyelitis and diphtheria. At lower herd immunities, transmission occurs at increasingly lower vector densities.

2014, Paul Reiter, “Surveillance and Control of Urban Dengue Vectors”, in Duane J. Gubler, Eng Eong Ooi, Subhash Vasudevan, Jeremy Farrar, editors, Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, 2nd edition, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, Boston, Mass.: CABI, →ISBN, part V (Dengue Prevention), page 500, column 1:

A few weeks ago, the U.K. had almost no social-isolation measures in place, and according to some reports, the government planned to let the virus run its course through the population, with the exception of the elderly, who were to be kept indoors. The idea was to let enough people get sick and recover from the mild version of the disease, to create "herd immunity." Things changed swiftly after an epidemiological model from Imperial College London projected that without drastic interventions, more than half a million Britons would die from COVID-19.

2020 April 2, Zeynep Tufekci, “Don’t Believe the COVID-19 Models: That’s Not What They’re For”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-04-02:

(epidemiology) The indirect protection against the spread of a contagious disease in a given population caused by the immunity of a significant proportion of the population to that particular disease; the immunity may have been obtained through having survived the infection or through vaccination.

مناعة القطيع

form of indirect protection against a disease


piroplasma

piroplasma (plural piroplasmas or piroplasmata)

piroplasmas (plural)
piroplasmata (plural)
piroplasm (alternative)

From Latin pirum (“pear”) + Ancient Greek πλάσμα (plásma, “image, formation”).

uder

It has been known for some years past that Piroplasma in the digestive tube of an adult female tick can give rise to infection in the offspring of that female, so that one generation of ticks can acquire the parasites from cattle, and the next generation can transmit the disease to other cattle

1895, Entomological Pamphlets: Slingerland Collection.:

(epidemiology, microbiology) Babesia, a genus of hematozoa that invades the red blood cells of humans and domesticated animals such as dogs and sheep


babesia

en-noun

babesia (usually uncountable, plural babesias or babesiae)

Borrowed from translingual Babesia, named after Victor Babeș.

(microbiology, epidemiology) Any of the hematozoa of the genus Babesia that invades the erythrocytes of living mammals, notably including cattle and humans, causing any of several babesioses.

巴倍蟲 /巴倍虫

any of the hematozoa of the genus Babesia


subpatent

Following the period of patent parasitemia is a subpatent period.

1991, Julius P. Kreier, John Robin Baker, Parasitic Protozoa - Volume 7, →ISBN, page 105:

Twenty-two per cent of humans in the area were, or had been, carrying subpatent trypanosome infections, suggesting that the T. b. rhodesiense reservoir in the region could be considerable.

1999, Stephen G. A. Leak, Tsetse Biology and Ecology, →ISBN:

While the method of PCR has allowed increased accuracy in the screening of infections from putative host species and populations, including individuals with very light or subpatent infections, and has thus allowed better estimates of the true prevalence of infection, it also poses numerous limitations.

2013, Jane M. Carlton, Susan L. Perkins, Kirk W. Deitsch, Malaria Parasites, →ISBN, page 10:

(epidemiology) Infected but asymptomatic or not readily detectable.


transvector

(epidemiology) An organism that transmits a disease-causing agent from another source


spillback

spillback (countable and uncountable, plural spillbacks)

(epidemiology) The spread of an infectious pathogen from humans to non-human animals.


superspreading

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-superspreading.wav

Our findings indicate that superspreading is a normal feature of disease spread[…]

2005 November 17, J. O. Llloyd-Smith et al., “Superspreading and the effect of individual variation on disease emergence”, in Nature, volume 438, →DOI, pages 355–359:

We found that superspreading has overwhelmingly contributed to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the city overall. Of the 349 local cases we identified — the remaining 689 cases were imported from other territories — 196 were linked to just six superspreading events.

2020 June 2, Dillon C. Adam, Benjamin J. Cowling, “Just Stop the Superspreading”, in New York Times:

(medicine, epidemiology) The spreading of an infection to many other people from a single individual.


index case

(epidemiology) The first documented case in a disease epidemic within a population or the first case of interest in an epidemiological investigation: the case of patient zero (the index patient).

cas índex

first documented patient in a disease epidemic


EID

emerging infectious disease
emerging infectious disease#English

emergent infectious disease
emergent infectious disease#English

(epidemiology) Abbreviation of emerging infectious disease or emergent infectious disease.


supercontacter

supercontacters (plural)
supercontactor (alternative)

(epidemiology, rare) A gregarious person who has many contacts.


self-isolate

en-verb

self-isolate (third-person singular simple present self-isolates, present participle self-isolating, simple past and past participle self-isolated)

self-isolates (present singular third-person)
self-isolating (participle present)
self-isolated (participle past)
self-isolated (past)

However, in all cases, if you cancel and do not wish to rebook you lose the money. To me this seems rather unfair if, for example, the passenger is being told to self-isolate owing to age for several months and cannot select a future date.

2020 March 25, “Network News: Passengers offered refunds or switched fares: Comment”, in Rail, page 7:

(epidemiology) To quarantine or isolate oneself from others, especially in order to avoid spreading a communicable disease.


contact trace

contact trace (third-person singular simple present contact traces, present participle contact tracing, simple past and past participle contact traced)

contact traces (present singular third-person)
contact tracing (participle present)
contact traced (participle past)
contact traced (past)
contact-trace (alternative)

“We’ve had over 15 million check-ins across the country since June, and have yet to have a COVID breakout or case that is contact-traced back to our club,” Sanft said.

2021 January 13, Jen Sotolongo, “Washington’s gyms and fitness centers reopened this week, but COVID-19 closures have them struggling to stay alive”, in The Seattle Times:

Sarah is 49 and lives in Dublin in a household of five. “A household member had been contact traced via text,” she says. “I fell ill on the night of the December 28th. I had a night of fever; of being hot and cold, feeling very achey and fluey. I had been fine during the day, but during the night, the symptoms came on relatively quickly.”

2021 January 17, Rosita Boland, “‘I got a burning smell in my nose’: Third-wave Covid-19 patients share their experiences”, in The Irish Times:

(epidemiology) To identify everyone with whom a person carrying an infectious disease has come into contact since contracting the disease.

rastrear contactos

to identify everyone with whom a person carrying an infectious disease has come into contact


contact tracing

en-noun

contact tracing (countable and uncountable, plural contact tracings)

contact tracings (plural)
contact-tracing (alternative)

There's a strong case for replacing the present system of anonymous testing with mandatory reporting of new infections, and vigorous contact tracing of sexual and needle-sharing partners.

1989 June 8, “The Case for Tracing AIDS Partners”, in The New York Times:

Other health care professionals also may be trained as part of the effort to more than double to 1,500 the number of people conducting interviews and contact tracings on an ongoing basis.

2020 April 22, Kie Relyea, “State asks National Guard for 500 people to help with coronavirus contact tracing work”, in The Bellingham Herald:

New research from RSSB [...] shows that in a typical UK train, you have around a 1-in-11,000 chance of catching COVID-19. This reflects German research by DB which concluded: "To our knowledge, not a single contact tracing has been identified in Germany and Austria as having been triggered by an infection on the train journey."

2020 August 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Rail at the brink? Not yet...”, in Rail, page 3:

For millions of American lives touched by the coronavirus, it was too late to correct the failure to stand up protocols for masking and social distancing, testing and contact-tracing. But negative consequences of the culture war around the pandemic could still lie ahead, damaging the national vaccination effort.

2020 November 20, Tom McCarthy, “Republican officials finally forced into action on Covid-19 as reality bites”, in The Guardian:

(epidemiology) The process of identification of persons ("contacts") who may have come into contact with a person carrying an infectious disease.

接觸者追蹤 /接触者追踪

the process of identification of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person


community spread

(epidemiology) The transmission of an illness through unknown untraced members of the greater community, indicative of a reservoir of anonymous infected individuals.


self-isolation

self-isolation (countable and uncountable, plural self-isolations)

(chiefly epidemiology) Voluntary isolation from others, especially in order to avoid spreading a communicable disease.


social distancing

→ Swedish: social distansering (calque)

The Governor of an affected State implements isolation and/or social-distancing requirements using State/local legal authorities.

2004, United States Department of Homeland Security, “Biological Incident Annex”, in National Response Plan, page 7:

Nonpharmaceutical interventions outside of healthcare settings focus on measures to 1) limit international spread of the virus (e.g., travel screening and restrictions); 2) reduce spread within national and local populations (e.g., isolation and treatment of ill persons; monitoring and possible quarantine of exposed persons; and social distancing measures, such as cancellation of mass gatherings and closure of schools); 3) reduce an individual person’s risk for infection (e.g., hand hygiene); and 4) communicate risk to the public.

2006, World Health Organization Writing Group, “Nonpharmaceutical Interventions for Pandemic Influenza, International Measures”, in Emerging Infectious Diseases, volume 12, number 1, →DOI, page 81:

Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, the medical arm of the National Academy of Sciences, was more pessimistic. “We’re completely unprepared,” Dr. Fineberg said, adding that if an epidemic struck in the next year, the quarantine-based strategy called social distancing “is likely to be all we’re going to have as a strategy.”

2006 February 6, Donald McNeil Jr., “States and Cities Lag in Bird Flu Readiness”, in The New York Times:

A spokesman confirmed that work would continue on projects such as the construction of a grade-separated junction at Werrington [...] where compliance with government advice and "social distancing can be guaranteed".

2020 April 8, “Network News: Crossrail heads the construction projects placed on hold”, in Rail, page 12:

All I spot are lots of anglers on the canal at Wigan, indulging in a sport where social distancing is de rigueur!

2020 November 4, Paul Bigland, “At no point have I felt unsafe...”, in Rail, page 47:

A huge crowd—visibly not observing social distancing—turned up Friday at the birthday community pantry organized by actress Angel Locsin in Quezon City.

2021, Neil Arwin Mercado, “Death, huge crowd shut down Angel Locsin’s birthday community pantry”, in Philippine Daily Inquirer:

(epidemiology) The practice of maintaining physical distance between people to reduce the spread of communicable diseases by isolating those with such diseases in quarantines, maintaining space between individuals, and prohibiting certain activities.

社会距離拡大戦略

しゃかいきょりかくだいせんりゃく


case fatality rate

case fatality rate (plural case fatality rates)

That 3.4 percent mortality rate, though still fluid, is formidable, even compared next to the case fatality rates (the number of deaths compared to the total number of those diagnosed) for other recent outbreaks.

2020 March 12, Matt Stieb, “Does the Coronavirus Think I’m Old?”, in New York:

(pathology, epidemiology, statistics) A percentage derived by the division of the number of fatalities by the number of confirmed (diagnosed) cases (sufferers) of a disease.

smrtnost

ratio of number of fatalities to number of disease cases


flatten the curve

en-verb

flatten the curve (third-person singular simple present flattens the curve, present participle flattening the curve, simple past and past participle flattened the curve)

flattens the curve (present singular third-person)
flattening the curve (participle present)
flattened the curve (participle past)
flattened the curve (past)

It is possible that these measures could have started to flatten the curve of deaths before the effects of the wider lockdown were visible.

2020 April 6, Robert Cuffe, Christine Jeavans, “Coronavirus: When will we know if the UK lockdown is working?”, in BBC News:

(epidemiology, colloquial) To reduce the rate at which an infection spreads during an epidemic, decreasing the number of active cases at any given time by increasing the period of time over which numbers of similar cases occur.

aplanar la corba

to reduce the rate at which an infection spreads during an epidemic

raise the line

to take measures to increase healthcare capacity


curve flattening

en-noun

curve flattening (countable and uncountable, plural curve flattenings)

flattening the curve
flatten the curve#English

(infectiology, epidemiology, pathology) The action of flattening the curve: the activity of reducing the speed of infection, so that the peak active infection cases are lower.

social distancing

the measures typically used for curve flattening


self-quarantine

en-verb

self-quarantine (third-person singular simple present self-quarantines, present participle self-quarantining, simple past and past participle self-quarantined)

self-quarantines (present singular third-person)
self-quarantining (participle present)
self-quarantined (participle past)
self-quarantined (past)

He said that he became sick with relatively mild symptoms about a week ago and self-quarantined at his home.

2020 March 22, Alex Wigglesworth, Maria L. La Ganga, Richard Winton, James Queally, “California coronavirus death toll rises to 27, including four in L.A. County”, in Los Angeles Times:

(intransitive, epidemiology) To refrain from physical contact with other individuals, especially in order to reduce the transmission of a contagious disease.


self-quarantine

en-noun

self-quarantine (countable and uncountable, plural self-quarantines)

We apply this model to a large urban area (9 million people) and evaluate the effect of situational awareness (early detection and response) and several response measures, such as mass vaccination, quarantine, closure, mass-transit shutdown, and voluntary self-quarantine on the spread of the epidemic and on the total number of casualties.

2005 November, Moshe Kress, “The Effect of Social Mixing Controls on the Spread of Smallpox—A Two-Level Model”, in Health Care Management Science, volume 8, number 4, →DOI, →ISSN, page 277:

Eleven city firefighters have tested positive, and more than 50 are in self-quarantine.

(epidemiology) Isolation by avoiding physical contact with other individuals, especially in order to reduce the transmission of a contagious disease.

zelfquarantaine

isolation by avoiding physical contact with other individuals


NNT

number needed to treat
number needed to treat#English

(epidemiology) Initialism of number needed to treat.


basic reproduction number

basic reproduction number (plural basic reproduction numbers)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-basic reproduction number.wav

(epidemiology) The expected number of infection cases to be directly infected by an infected individual, given a population that is equally susceptible.


patient 0

(epidemiology) Alternative form of patient zero (“index case”)


contact tracer

contact tracers (plural)
contact-tracer (alternative)

Contact tracing was used in Wuhan, where 1,800 teams of five people went house to house, and Ireland last week said it would recruit 1,400 contact tracers.

2020 April 7, James Tapper, “Recruit volunteer army to trace coronavirus contacts now, urge top scientists”, in The Guardian:

(epidemiology) A person engaged in contact tracing.


positivity rate

positivity rate (plural positivity rates)

(epidemiology) The percentage of people who have tested positive out of all of those who have been tested (for a given pathogen).


pandemial

en-adj

pandemial (comparative more pandemial, superlative most pandemial)

more pandemial (comparative)
most pandemial (superlative)

(epidemiology, obsolete) Of a disease: epidemic over a wide geographical area and affecting a large proportion of the population; also, of or pertaining to a disease of this nature.


subrisk

en-noun

subrisk (countable and uncountable, plural subrisks)

Risk that is subordinate or subsidiary to other risk; thus:

(epidemiology, medicine, public health, occupational health, environmental health) Subsidiary risk as opposed to primary risk, as with risk factors that are less important than others, that exist only when certain others are present, or that matter more when certain others are present (for example, condomless sex and sex work).

public health; occupational health; environmental health; public health; occupational health; environmental health


managed isolation

(epidemiology) The isolation for a set time period of incoming travellers in a dedicated facility to prevent the spread of any infectious diseases they may be carrying, typically managed by a government.


MIQ

managed isolation
managed isolation#English

(New Zealand, epidemiology) Initialism of managed isolation and quarantine (facilities).


community immunity

community immunity (countable and uncountable, plural community immunities)

How to help: Be social wise while we build community immunity

2021 December 9, Ottawa Public Health, “Thank you for getting vaccinated!”, in Community Immunity: Let's stay the course, Ottawa, archived from the original on 2022-01-11:

In Delta we look forward to championing the race to community immunity and hope all of our neighbours will be right on our heels.

2021 May 27, Fraser Health, “Fraser Health Mayors Challenge Each Other to Community Immunity”, in News:

A third category, community immunity, does not involve physical components of the immune system for protection, but is still worth discussion in this capacity.

2019 April 22, Paul A. Offit, “Types of Immunity”, in Vaccine Education Center, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia:


Russian flu

(epidemiology, pathology) The form of influenza that caused a pandemic in 1889 and 1890.

(epidemiology, pathology) The form of influenza that caused a pandemic in 1977.


RRR

RRR (countable and uncountable, plural RRRs)

relative risk reduction
relative risk reduction#English

(epidemiology) Initialism of relative risk reduction.


hybrid immunity

(epidemiology) The combination of natural immunity and artificially acquired immunity, such as that induced by a vaccine.


epidemic threshold

epidemic threshold (countable and uncountable, plural epidemic thresholds)

(epidemiology) a predefined threshold for the number of cases of a contagious disease above which the disease is considered to be at epidemic levels.


foodborne illness

foodborne illness (countable and uncountable, plural foodborne illnesses)

foodborne illnesses (plural)
food-borne illness (alternative)

(epidemiology) Synonym of food poisoning


Bradford Hill criteria

Bradford Hill criteria pl (normally plural, singular Bradford Hill criterion)

Established by Austin Bradford Hill (1897–1991), English epidemiologist and statistician, in 1965.

(epidemiology) A group of nine principles, widely used in public health research, that can be useful in establishing epidemiologic evidence of a causal relationship between a presumed cause and an observed effect.


immunity gap

However, an immunity gap in adults coupled with the presence of large numbers of susceptible children and adolescents creates the potential for an extensive epidemic.

2009, Michael R. Dobbs, Clinical Neurotoxicology, page 437:

Thus with the usual booster (third dose) at 5-6 months there is only a small risk of an immunity gap.

2016, David E. Swayne, Animal Influenza, page 530:

While prior studies in Pakistan indicated near universal exposure to hepatitis A by age 14 years, the incidence of acute hepatitis A among adults has increased in recent years, indicating an immunity gap.

2022, Walter A. Orenstein, Paul A. Offit, Kathryn M. Edwards, Plotkin's Vaccines, page 902:

(epidemiology) The time period between when an individual's or a population's immunity to a virus has waned (due to normal decrease in immune response over time or to the development of a new strain of the virus) and before a new vaccine can be given to boost immunity.


attack rate

(epidemiology) the proportion of people in a population exposed to a disease who fall ill. (Ill people divided by total population)


reservoir control

reservoir control (plural reservoir controls)

Coordinate term: target control

(epidemiology, public health) The management of the locations where pathogens reside and spread to infect other hosts.


target control

Coordinate term: reservoir control

(epidemiology, public health) A management or technique which is aimed at controlling an infection within a target population.


raise the line

en-verb

raise the line (third-person singular simple present raises the line, present participle raising the line, simple past and past participle raised the line)

raises the line (present singular third-person)
raising the line (participle present)
raised the line (participle past)
raised the line (past)

(healthcare, epidemiology, idiomatic) To take measures to increase healthcare capacity.


pancreatic pseudocyst

en-noun

pancreatic pseudocyst (plural pancreatic pseudocysts)

(epidemiology) A collection of fluid rich in digestive enzymes, tissue, and blood usually located in the lesser sac.


gastric reflux disease

gastric reflux disease (usually uncountable, plural gastric reflux diseases)

(epidemiology) A chronic gastrointestinal disease where stomach content regularly flows up into the oesophagus, causing regurgitation and complications with the teeth and swallowing.