Infectious & contagious.

[Vimto]

Can anyone tell me the difference, if any, between "infectious" and "contagious"?
If a person is infectious are they also contagious?
If a person has an infectious disease can it also be said they have a contagious disease?
More commonly put: if an illness is "catching" is it both infectious and contagious?

[Anneyelland]

Contagious means spead by contact - hands etc .
Infectious can be spread in the air, or droplet infection not necessailty actual contact.
The second part of your questions depends very much on the diesase !

[Prudie]

I thought if something is catching then it's infectious. Contagious is a subset of infectious disease in that it's catching through contact (actual touching) whereas some infectious diseases are only catching by a specific means (needles, insects dirty water etc). Just my interpretation.

[ethandron]

google it, there are many explanations, some more easily understood than others.

[Sqad]

The are basically synonymous.

[Sqad]

Sorry...your question....Yes.

[Vimto]

Thank you all for your contributions. It seems it means different things to different people. I wonder where to be if I threw in "communicable, spreadable, conveyable, transferable, transmissable and transmittable". What a rich language we have but one can't wonder if a little redundancy might not be such a bad thing.

[Sqad]

Vimto ;-)

For what it is worth, I think from the medical point of view, Prudie's answer is the best.

[redman41]

Getting seduced by Squad can be rather Infectious or even Contagious ! :-)

[Sqad]

red........no sir! all my tests came back negative..;-)

[Sammy48]

^^lol lol ^^^ (:o)

[redman41]

LOL Squad !!