cross infection
- noun
- /krɔs ɪnˈfɛkʃən/
- UK
:
infección cruzada
- The patient developed a cross infection after being treated in the hospital.
Examples
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Healthcare workers must follow strict protocols to prevent cross infection among patients.
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The study aimed to reduce the incidence of cross infection in surgical wards.
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The risk of cross infection will be even higher now, so...
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While Ebola is a very dangerous condition (with a mortality rate of 90% if left untreated), it is unlikely to be a cause of infection that could lead to a global pandemic, for the simple reason that it has been identified early, and measures have been put in place to reduce the chances of further cross infections.
Academic text (2014)
Synonyms
594
3.1
Harmful germs enter the body and make you sick
An infection caught in a hospital or clinic that was not there before you arrived
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'cross' (meaning across/between/transmitted) combined with 'infection' yields an infection transmitted between people or sources within a setting. This formation is transparent and common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can reasonably infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Cross infection comes from the image of germs crossing from one patient or surface to another, where cross means 'moving across' and infection is the illness the germs cause. That's why the term means an infection a patient 'gets inside the hospital' from someone or something else.