Pathogen

In biology, a pathogen (Greek: πάθος pathos “suffering, passion” and -γενής -genēs “producer of”) in the oldest and broadest sense is anything that can produce disease, a term which came into use in the 1880s. Typically the term is used to describe an infectious agent such as a virus, bacterium, prion, fungus, viroid, or parasite that causes disease in its host. The host may be a human, an animal, a plant, a fungus, or even another micro-organism.

There are several substrates including pathways where the pathogens can invade a host. The principal pathways have different episodic time frames, but soil contamination has the longest or most persistent potential for harboring a pathogen. Diseases caused by organisms in humans are known as pathogenic diseases.

Pathogenicity

Pathogenicity is the potential disease-causing capacity of pathogens. Pathogenicity is related to virulence in meaning, but some authorities have come to distinguish it as a qualitative term, whereas the latter is quantitative. By this standard, an organism may be said to be pathogenic or non-pathogenic in a particular context, but not "more pathogenic" than another. Such comparisons are described instead in terms of relative virulence. Pathogenicity is also distinct from the transmissibility of the virus, which quantifies the risk of infection.

Pathogen (disambiguation)

A pathogen is a microorganism in the widest sense that causes disease in its host.

Pathogen may also refer to:

Pathogen (film)

Pathogen is a 2006 zombie horror independent film written, directed, and produced by Emily Hagins, who was twelve at the time of the film's production. The film was released on March 25, 2006 and focuses on several middle school students that discover that an infection is turning people into zombies.

Plot

Fourteen-year-old Dannie (Rose Kent-McGlew) is horrified when a waterborne disease caused by bacteria begins to spread, but believes that the disease is somehow linked to her recurring dreams. As the disease becomes an epidemic, it's revealed that the disease not only kills those it infects but also turns them into zombies. As Dannie and her friends try to find the solution to the disease, they come across researcher Sue, who might hold the key to both the zombie disease and Dannie's dreams.

Cast