Infectious diseases

The verb verschleppen is built on schleppen, to drag, and the prefix sends the dragging off in directions that seem to have little to do with one another. Jemanden verschleppen is to carry a person off by force. Ein Verfahren verschleppen is to drag out proceedings on purpose, so that nothing gets decided. In hygiene it means carrying germs from one place to another, and die Keimverschleppung is exactly what clean hands are meant to prevent. And a doctor uses it of the patient: Sie haben den Infekt verschleppt means that you ignored an illness, kept on working and so let it drag on for weeks. Only the object tells you which sense is meant. On a ward it is almost always one of the last two, and the last is a mild reproach rather than a diagnosis. These pages explain words and give no medical advice.