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case-to-infection proportion

case-to-infection proportion

8.1
The percentage of infections that become known as cases
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : proporción de casos a infecciones
  • A low case-to-infection proportion suggests that many infections are asymptomatic or unreported.

Examples

  • The case-to-infection proportion helps public health officials assess the severity of an epidemic.

  • Researchers compared the case-to-infection proportion between different age groups during the outbreak.

  • The current case-to-infection proportion is alarming.

  • Health officials reported a high case-to-infection proportion this week.

  • The case-to-infection proportion helps epidemiologists understand how many infections are actually reported.

  • During the study, the case-to-infection proportion was calculated to evaluate the disease's impact on the population.

  • A higher case-to-infection proportion indicates more people are showing symptoms of the disease.

Synonyms

case-to-infection ratio
vscase-to-infection proportion
  • Specialized
6.3

A number that shows how many infected people become sick

is used in epidemiology to relate diagnosed cases to infections and estimate severity

Surface Forms

Morphology

case-to-infection + proportion

The phrase is compositionally built from a '[case]-to-[infection]' relation plus 'proportion', so in form it denotes the proportion/ratio of cases to infections and a learner who understands 'case', 'infection' and 'proportion' can partly reconstruct this. However, 'case-to-infection' is a technical epidemiological term (distinguishing diagnosed cases from total infections) and requires domain knowledge to grasp the exact meaning, so it is not fully predictable for a B1 learner.

Etymology

Case-to-infection proportion makes a simple picture: the people we see as sick (the cases) compared with everyone who has the infection, even those we cannot see (the infections). So, this ratio shows what part of all infections become counted 'cases' and helps health workers understand how serious an illness is.