prophylaxis
noun
Did you know?
In Greek, phylax means "guard", so prophylactic measures guard against disease by taking action ahead of time. Thus, for example, before the polio vaccine became available, prophylaxis against polio included avoiding crowds and public swimming pools. These days a well-known kind of prophylactic is used to prevent sexually transmitted diseases; but prophylactic measures only work when people use them.
Example Sentences
Ana Escalante, Glamour, 5 Aug. 2022 Monkeypox vaccination can be used as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and outbreak response PEP (PEP++), according to the CDC. Virginia Langmaid, CNN, 5 Aug. 2022 Using the vaccine in this way is known as post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP. Benjamin Ryan, NBC News, 6 July 2022 Vaccinating someone already exposed to monkeypox to help prevent illness is called post-exposure prophylaxis or a ring vaccination strategy. Jacqueline Howard, CNN, 30 July 2022 What’s more, TPOXX could be used as post-exposure prophylaxis among people exposed to monkeypox, either among unvaccinated people or those who cannot be vaccinated, such as the immunocompromised, according to Columbia’s Zucker. Benjamin Ryan, NBC News, 22 July 2022 First approved in 2012, preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, given as a daily oral pill or bimonthly injection can reduce one’s chances of contracting HIV by 90 to 100 percent. David Malebranche, Scientific American, 1 June 2022 High-income countries have access to post-exposure prophylaxis with vaccination or immunoglobulin. Vinay Kampalath, STAT, 8 June 2022 Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV has shown to be highly effective in clinical trials, but there is less research on the effectiveness when prescribed in real life to diverse populations. William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 17 June 2022 See More Word History
borrowed from New Latin, from Greek prophylak-, stem of prophylássein "to keep guard before a place, be on guard, (middle voice) to be on one's guard against, take precautions against" (from pro- pro- entry 1 + phylássein "to keep watch on, guard, preserve," derivative of phylak-, phýlax "guard, guardian, protector") + -sis -sis — more at phylactery
1683, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing prophylaxis
Medical Definition
prophylaxis
noun