infectivityn.
/ˌɪnfɛkˈtɪvᵻti/, U.S. /ˌɪnfɛkˈtɪvᵻdi/ The quality or property of being infective (infective adj. 1); the degree to which something is infective. In later use: spec. the ability of a microorganism or parasite to infect a host; the degree of this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > production of disease > [noun] > infection > infectious quality
infectiousness1578
infectibility1721
infectiveness1860
infectivity1871
intercommunicability1884
1871 W. H. Walshe Pract. Treat. Dis. Lungs (ed. 4) ii. 519 The existence of family proclivity to the disease would of course have made the process of infection an easier one, assuming that infectivity ranks at all among the attributes of the disease.
1882 Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. Jan. 67 There is..considerable uncertainty in the infectivity of such blood.
1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. II. 186 The virus may be carried from a small-pox hospital by the air a considerable distance without losing its infectivity.
1948 L. E. H. Whitby Nurses' Handbk. Hygiene (ed. 8) iv. 116 The infectivity of air can be lowered by eliminating dust and by means of appropriate sprays.
1984 M. J. Taussig Processes in Pathol. & Microbiol. (ed. 2) iv. 381 Two properties of pathogenic organisms which are shared by non-pathogens are transmissibility, the transfer of organisms to a host from another host or reservoir of infection, and infectivity, the ability of an organism to colonise (infect) its host.
1998 Gay Times Aug. 56/1 Researchers are speculating that this may be because successful combination therapy reduces the infectivity of HIV-positive men's semen.
2012 Virus Res. 167 29/1 The infectivity [of Sindbis virus] was plotted as a function of titer..to determine how infectivity varies with the cell line used for titering the virus.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1871