Have you all heard about the incubation period of an infectious disease? This is the time between the moment when a person became infected and the moment when he himself realized that he was infected. That is, before the onset of symptoms of the disease.
Well, that is, a person came to visit, and there they coughed him up. After that, he walked for a week and did not suspect anything until his body temperature rose. Then the person realized that he was infected while visiting. It turns out that the incubation period was a week.
It was all about infectious diseases. In general, incubation is more likely to be translated as "incubation of eggs". That is, something in the egg grows and develops, but until it hatches, this something does not threaten anyone.
Crocodile
Imagine that you are watching with interest the development of crocodile eggs in warm sand. Let's say that the crocodile mother is not around and will not be. Therefore, no one threatens you.
It is clear that as long as the crocodile lives inside the egg, it will not be able to bite you either. He will only be able to tap your finger after he hatches.
That's the same story with an infectious disease. During the incubation period, the disease does not bite you yet. Maybe she's already sneaking up there from the inside, but you don't feel it.
Latency period
And this is where mistakes begin. The fact is that such a latent course of the disease occurs not only with infections. If a person was irradiated with radiation, or he was poisoned by mushrooms, or a malignant tumor is maturing, then for the time being, all this trouble does not manifest itself in any way.
But this is not an infection, that is, not a virus or a bacterium. Therefore, the concept of the incubation period is not used for non-communicable diseases. This time is called the latency period.
The man ate a pale toadstool, and his latency period began. After a few hours, the latent period will end, and the poisoned person begins to mangle in full.
It turns out that in the case of non-communicable diseases, the latency period is the same as the incubation period. They just changed the word. In a non-infectious disease, there is no incubation period, but there is a latency period.
The latency period together with the incubation period
The most interesting and confusing thing is that with an infectious disease there is also a latency period. This is the time until the moment when an infected person himself can become contagious.
In infectious diseases, the latency period may coincide with the incubation period or be shorter or longer. These two periods lie side by side and coexist peacefully.
It may easily be that an infected person himself has become infectious, but has not yet understood this, and he has no symptoms. He does not cough or sneeze, but only peacefully sprinkles drops with the virus during ordinary conversation.
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