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🦠 Disease severity 😡 Extreme hostility
virulence

virulence

4 8.8
How harmful a disease or germ is to people
  • noun
  • /ˈvɪrələns/
  • Specialized
: virulencia
  • Instead, our current understanding of A. baumannii virulence suggests a 'persist and resist' strategy.
  • virulence factor
  • virulence genes
  • virulence of the virus

Several other things talking about the auto virulence that could result from gain of function and say, folks, can we agree that this just shouldn't happen?

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Examples

  • However, global environmental change is affecting the virulence of the parasite and the life cycle of the intermediate host.

    Academic text (2004)

  • The virulence of the new strain of bacteria has raised concerns among health officials.

  • And the key idea here is the trade off between virulence and transmission.

  • They cause increased virulence for two reasons.

  • Their virulence subsides at a corresponding rate.

    The Cassandra Crossing (1976)

  • In this review, we discuss our current understanding of the virulence mechanisms in A. baumannii.

    Academic text (2018)

  • Assessing and understanding H5N1's virulence in humans has also proved elusive.

    Academic text (2005)

  • There is only one serotype of the PPR virus, but virulence varies among strains from different regions.

    Academic text (2014)

  • Importantly, acinetobactin is absolutely required for virulence, thus rendering its biosynthetic pathway an attractive antibacterial target.

    Academic text (2018)

  • The capsular polysaccharide, glycoproteins, and hepta-acylated lipooligosaccharide (LOS) all contribute to the virulence of Acinetobacter baumannii.

    Academic text (2018)

Synonyms

pathogenicity
vsvirulence
  • Specialized
1 8.7

The ability of a germ to cause disease in people or animals

measures how harmful or severe an infection is rather than simple ability
virulency
vsvirulence
  • Specialized
9.8

How strong a germ or virus is at causing disease

is the standard or preferred spelling in many medical texts

Antonyms

harmlessness
1 3.3

The state of not causing harm or danger

How Harmful

deadliness
1 6.8
virulence
  • Specialized
4 8.8
mildness
1 3.3
harmlessness
1 3.3

Surface Forms

virulence singular
virulences plural

Morphology

virulence = virulent (transparent) = virul + ence

Formally a regular nominalization of the adjective 'virulent' using the productive suffix '-ence', so the morphological relation is clear.

Etymology

Virulence comes from the Latin root virus, which meant 'poison'. So the word kept that idea: virulence is the power of a germ or disease to harm you.