Window period is defined as the time taken from:
Ans. b. Exposure to laboratory detection of disease (Ref: Park 23/e p99, 22./e p95)Window period is defined as the time taken from Exposure to laboratory detection of disease."Window Period: Time between first infection & when the test can reliably detect that infection." Disease Transmission: DefinitionsWindow period* Time between first infection & when the test can reliably detect that infection* In antibody-based testing, the window period is dependent on the time taken for seroconversionIncubation periodQ* Time interval between invasion by an infectious agent and appearance of the first sign or symptom of the disease in questionMedian incubation periodQ* Time required for 50% of cases to occur following exposureGeneration timeQ* Time taken for a person from receipt of infection to develop maximum infectivity* Roughly equal to the incubation period of the diseaseLatent periodQ* Period from disease initiation to disease detection,* Used in non-infectious diseases as equivalent of incubation periodSerial intervalQ* Gap in onset between primary case (first case in the community) and secondary case (case devetoping through infection from the primary case)* By collecting information on series of secondary cases with serial intervals, one can guess the incubation period of a diseasePeriod of communicabilityQ* Time during which an infectious agent may be transferred directly/indirectly from an infected person to another person, from infected animal to man or from an infected person to animal, including arthropods* An important measure of communicability is secondary attack rate
Entry of pathogen to appearance of first clinical symptoms
Exposure to laboratory detection of disease
Entry in cell to expulsion of first viral particle
Entry to maximum communicability
Infectious Disease Epidemiology