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coinfection

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Coinfection is the simultaneous infection of a host by multiple pathogen species. In virology, coinfection includes simultaneous infection of a single cell by two or more virus particles. An example is the coinfection of liver cells with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis D virus, which can arise incrementally by initial infection followed by superinfection.

Key facts

Medical condition (new).name
Coinfection
Medical condition (new).field
Infectious disease

via Wikipedia infobox

~5 min read

Encyclopedic overview

5 sections
Contents
  • Poliovirus
  • Examples
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Coinfection is the simultaneous infection of a host by multiple pathogen species. In virology, coinfection includes simultaneous infection of a single cell by two or more virus particles. An example is the coinfection of liver cells with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis D virus, which can arise incrementally by initial infection followed by superinfection.

Global prevalence or incidence of coinfection among humans is unknown, but it is thought to be commonplace, sometimes more common than single infection. Coinfection with helminths affects around 800 million people worldwide.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “coinfection” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.