adjective
- Extremely virulent; possessing unusually high capacity to cause severe disease or infection.
Usage: technical; medical/scientific
Examples
- The hypervirulent strain of the bacterium spread rapidly through the hospital.
- Researchers identified a hypervirulent variant that caused more severe symptoms in infected patients.
- The hypervirulent pathogen overwhelmed the immune system more quickly than typical strains.
- Public health officials were alarmed by the emergence of a hypervirulent form of the disease.
- Scientists studied the genetic mutations that made the virus hypervirulent.