incubation period

time between an infection and the onset of disease symptoms

AI overview

The incubation period is the time that passes between when you catch an infection and when you actually start feeling sick or showing symptoms. It matters because knowing how long this period typically lasts helps doctors and public health officials predict when infected people might become contagious and take steps to prevent the spread of disease.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Research

40,845 papers

Immediate "Kangaroo Mother Care" and Survival of Infants with Low Birth Weight.The New England journal of medicine · 2021WHO Immediate KMC Study Group, Arya S, Naburi H et al.DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2026486
A reaction-diffusion malaria model with seasonality and incubation period.Journal of mathematical biology · 2018Bai Z, Peng R, Zhao XQDOI: 10.1007/s00285-017-1193-7
Determination of scrapie agent titer from incubation period measurements in hamsters.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 1981Prusiner SB, Cochran SP, Downey DE et al.DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4757-0495-2_35
Influence of selection for increased body weight, egg production, and shank width on the length of the incubation period of turkeys.Poultry science · 2000Christensen VL, Noble DO, Nestort KEDOI: 10.1093/ps/79.5.613
Transmission dynamics of a reaction-advection-diffusion dengue fever model with seasonal developmental durations and intrinsic incubation periods.Journal of mathematical biology · 2024Zha Y, Jiang WDOI: 10.1007/s00285-024-02089-6
Effect of pH on the cyanobacterial circadian oscillator in vitro.Communications biology · 2025Ito-Miwa K, Onoue Y, Kondo T et al.DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-08273-8
A meta-analysis of experiments linking incubation conditions with subsequent leg weakness in broiler chickens.PloS one · 2014Groves PJ, Muir WIDOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102682
Individual Optimization of Reproductive Investment and the Cost of Incubation in a Wild Songbird.The American naturalist · 2024Miller KD, Atkins Coleman AJ, O'Neil KL et al.DOI: 10.1086/727967

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Wikidata facts

Part of: disease
Image: Concept of incubation period.svg

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on focus list of Wikimedia project: WikiProject COVID-19
Commons category: Incubation period
WordLift URL: data.medicalrecords.com/medicalrecords/healthwise/incubation_period
different from: egg incubation

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Encyclopedic overview

In some diseases, as depicted in this diagram, the latency period is shorter than the incubation period. After the latency period (but before clinical infection) the infected person can transmit the disease without signs of any symptoms. Such infection is called subclinical infection.

Incubation period (also known as the latent period or latency period) is the time elapsed between exposure to a pathogenic organism, a chemical, or radiation, and when symptoms and signs are first apparent. In a typical infectious disease, the incubation period signifies the period taken by the multiplying organism to reach a threshold necessary to produce symptoms in the host.

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

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