Health / Disease Glossary

Vaccination: Administering weakened or dead pathogens to a healthy person or animal, with the intent of conferring immunity against a targeted form of a related disease agent.

Vaccine: A preparation of killed microorganisms, living attenuated organisms, or living fully virulent organisms administered to produce or artificially increase immunity to a particular disease.

Vancomycin: An antibiotic used in the treatment of infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. It has traditionally been reserved as a drug of 'last resort', used only after treatment with other antibi . . . View Full Definition

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD): An infectious disease that affects the brain and nervous system in humans. The infectious agent in vCJD is believed to be a specific type of misfolded protein called a prion. vCJD is though . . . View Full Definition

Vector: A living organism that transmits the infectious agent eg. Ticks, fleas and mosquitoes.

Vertical Transmission: Transmission of an infection, such as HIV, from mother to child during the perinatal period, the period immediately before and after birth.

Vibrio Cholera: The bacterial causative agent of cholera in humans.

Viral Swarm: (aka mutant swarm) A group of viruses of the same species but with slightly different genetic sequences

Virulence: From the Latin word virulentus, which means 'full of poison.' The relative ability of a microbe to cause harm.

Virus: A sub-microscopic infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside of a host cell. Each viral particle, or virion, consists of genetic material, either DNA or RNA, within a prote . . . View Full Definition

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCS): Organic compounds that evaporate readily into the air. VOCs include substances such as benzene, toluene, methylene chloride, and methyl chloroform.

VRSA: Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) is a strain of Staphylococcus aureus that has become resistant to the glycopeptide antibiotic vancomycin.

XDR-TB: Extreme drug resistant TB – any strain of TB that is resistant to both of the two main first line antibiotic drugs AND two more of the second line drugs.

Yellow Fever: An acute, often-fatal, infectiousdisease of warm climates--caused by a virus transmitted by mosquitoes

Yersinia Pestis: The bacterial causative agent of Bubonic Plague. Named in honor of the discoverer Alexandre Yersin and the great pestilence (aka Black Death).

Zoonoses: Diseases which occur primarily in animals but may occasionally be transmitted to people eg. Lyme disease, rocky mountain spotted fever.

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