fomite

See also: fómite

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage) Back-formation from plural, from Latin fōmitēs.

Noun

fomite (plural fomites)

1. (medicine, epidemiology) An inanimate object capable of carrying infectious agents (such as bacteria, viruses and parasites), and thus passively enabling their transmission between hosts.
   • 2009, Raina M. Maier, Ian L. Pepper, Charles P. Gerba, Environmental Microbiology, page 559,

     Alternatively, such fluids may be transferred from soiled hands to fomites, or airborne organisms may impinge or settle onto fomite surfaces. Fomites may also serve as a site for the replication of a pathogen, as in the case of enteric bacteria in household sponges or dishcloths.

Translations

inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 傳染物／传染物, 传染物 (chuánrǎnwù), 媒介物 (zh) (méijièwù), 病媒 (bìngméi)

• Finnish: fomiitti
• French: vecteur passif m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Fomite m
• Japanese: 媒介物 (ばいかいぶつ, baikaibutsu)
• Russian: возбуди́тель (ru) m (vozbudítelʹ), перено́счик (ru) m (perenósčik), посре́дник (ru) m (posrédnik)
• Spanish: fómite (es) m

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Italian

Noun

fomite m (plural fomiti)

1. incitement
2. cause, source

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Latin

Noun

(deprecated template usage) fōmite

1. ablative singular of fōmes