infectées

Infectées is the feminine plural form of the French adjective infecté and of the past participle of infecter. In common usage, it designates entities that carry an infectious agent, or the state of being infected, and can function as a noun when referring to a group of infected people.

The masculine plural form is infectés; singular forms are infecté (masculine) and infectée (feminine). The term applies to people, animals, surfaces, tissues, or other objects that have been exposed to a pathogen and harbor it.

In medical and public health contexts, infectées denotes the infected individuals or specimens, as in phrases like des patients infectées par un virus or des surfaces infectées. It is used to describe infection status rather than the process itself.

Infectées is distinct from infection, which refers to the process or state of being infected, and from infectivité, which concerns contagiousness or the ability to transmit an infection. The use of the term is governed by grammatical agreement with the noun it modifies and by context regarding the infected group or item.

In practice, the word appears in clinical reports, epidemiological surveillance, and infection-control discussions, where precise labeling of infection status supports tracing, isolation, and treatment decisions.