thumbnail|The relationship between the latent period, the infectious period (the period of communicability) and the incubation period. In some diseases, as depicted in this diagram, the latent period is shorter than the incubation period. A person can transmit an infection without showing any signs of the disease. Such an infection is called a subclinical infection. In epidemiology, particularly in the discussion of infectious disease dynamics (mathematical modeling of disease spread), the infectious period is the time interval during which a host (individual or patient) is infectious, i.e. capable of directly or indirectly transmitting pathogenic infectious agents or pathogens to another susceptible host. The infectious period can start before, during or after the onset of symptoms, and it may stop before or after the symptoms stop showing. It is also known in the literature  as the infective period, the period of infectiousness or the period of communicability  . The degree of infectiousness is not constant but varies through the infectious period.
thumbnail|The relationship between the latent period, the infectious period (the period of communicability) and the incubation period. In some diseases, as depicted in this diagram, the latent period is shorter than the incubation period. A person can transmit an infection without showing any signs of the disease. Such an infection is called a subclinical infection. In epidemiology, particularly in the discussion of infectious disease dynamics (mathematical modeling of disease spread), the infectious period is the time interval during which a host (individual or patient) is infectious, i.e. capable of directly or indirectly transmitting pathogenic infectious agents or pathogens to another susceptible host. The infectious period can start before, during or after the onset of symptoms, and it may stop before or after the symptoms stop showing. It is also known in the literature by a variety of synonymous terms such as the infective period, the period of infectiousness , communicability period, the period of communicability , contagious period, the period of contagiousness, transmission period or transmissibility period . The degree of infectiousness is not constant but varies through the infectious period.
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by a variety of synonymous terms such
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, communicability period,
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, contagious period, the period of contagiousness, transmission period or transmissibility period