Reinfections

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The occurrence of becoming infected again after an initial infection has resolved
2. A situation where an individual contracts the same infectious disease multiple times
3. The repeated onset of an illness due to exposure to the same pathogen after recovery

Etymology: "Reinfections" is the plural of "reinfection", a noun for a new infection that follows an earlier one, often after treatment or recovery. The word is a plain English formation: the prefix "re-", meaning again, attached to "infection". That prefix is a Latin element, "re-", which English has used for centuries to build words like "rebuild" and "reread", and "infection" comes from the Latin "infectio", a staining or contaminating, built on "inficere", to put something into or dye. Because "reinfection" is a transparent compound, its literal sense is simply "infecting again", and it has stayed close to that meaning. The plural form adds the sense of multiple recurrences, as in outbreaks where the same people fall ill more than once.

Synonyms: recurrences, relapses, recontaminations, reinfestations, reactivations

Antonyms: immunity, protection, clearance