Word: infectivity
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...thanks to a century of advances in genetic engineering, that was no more threatening than a common cold. Her doctor used a computer to analyze the genetic makeup of the aberrant cells and generate a custom-made virus that would search out the wayward tissue. Then the virus would infect the malignant cells, injecting a handful of its own regulatory genes. These viral snippets would reprogram the microscopic tumor's DNA, shutting down its unruly growth pattern and transforming the cancer cells back into healthy ones...
...Asian tiger mosquito, which hitchhiked to the U.S. in 1985 aboard used tires shipped from Japan, has moved up from annoying to potentially deadly. The virus that causes Eastern equine encephalitis, a deadly brain disease that can infect humans, has been detected in mosquitoes in Florida. That's troublesome, because the more aggressive Asian tigers feed on a broader range of animals than their American cousins. Tigers are found in the Eastern U.S., as far north as Ohio...
...rainfall and the less likely you are to get parasitic fungi and footworms. Fay has already accumulated four nasty footworms, which burrow under the skin until they discover that you are not a pig or elephant -- their proper hosts. The worms then die, but bacteria in the little corpses infect your feet...
Shellfish are also highly susceptible to bacterial and viral contamination, since they live close to the shore, where pollution tends to be worst. Cooking generally destroys the microbes that infect shellfish, but eating raw clams, ^ oysters and other shellfish is linked to nearly 1,000 cases of hepatitis each year...
...current figures about AIDS weren't grim enough, a new Harvard School of Public Health study finds that HIV threatens to infect as many as 120 million people by the end of the century. This doubles previous predictions and estimates that the number of people who develop AIDS over the next three years will exceed the total afflicted with it in the epidemic's 11-year history to date...