Crossword clues for fomite
Wiktionary
n. (context medicine epidemiology English) An inanimate object capable of carrying infectious agents (such as bacteria, viruses and parasites), and thus passively enabling their transmission between hosts.
WordNet
n. any inanimate object (as a towel or money or clothing or dishes or books or toys etc.) that can transmit infectious agents from one person to another [syn: vehicle]
Wikipedia
A fomes (pronounced ) or fomite is any nonliving object or substance capable of carrying infectious organisms, such as germs or parasites, and hence transferring them from one individual to another. Skin cells, hair, clothing, and bedding are common hospital sources of contamination.
Fomites are associated particularly with hospital-acquired infections (HAI), as they are possible routes to pass pathogens between patients. Stethoscopes and neckties are two such fomites associated with health care providers. Basic hospital equipment, such as IV drip tubes, catheters, and life support equipment can also be carriers, when the pathogens form biofilms on the surfaces. Careful sterilization of such objects prevents cross-infection.
Researchers have discovered that smooth (non-porous) surfaces like door knobs transmit bacteria and viruses better than porous materials like paper money because porous, especially fibrous, materials absorb and trap the contagion, making it harder to contract through simple touch.
Usage examples of "fomite".
Harvath was beginning to wonder if some sort of fomite was responsible for infecting the non-Muslim population of Asalaam.
I will also be culturing equipment, bedding, and other fomites in the ICU.
Culturing of fomites and equipment from the Critical Room and the ICU was continuing but without significant results.
None of those ridiculous old-wife nostrums of yours, signora, could have prevented the fomites and miasms of corruption from getting into the wounds.
Our young people who go to study abroad get infected with those radical notions, and come home carrying the fomites of that disease.
Regulations prohibiting citizens from coming into contact with known fomites went back almost four thousand years.