- any of a class of virus-like disease-causing agents known as prions that are present in the body for a long time before becoming active or infectious and are very resistant to radiation and similar factors: believed to be the cause of BSE and scrapie
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
slow′ vi′rus, [Pathol.]
- Microbiologya virus that remains dormant in the body for a long time before producing symptoms, as in several neurological diseases, including kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
- 1950–55
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
slow virus n
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