Medical Dictionary Online

Immunity, Herd

The non-susceptibility to infection of a large group of individuals in a population. A variety of factors can be responsible for herd immunity and this gives rise to the different definitions used in the literature. Most commonly, herd immunity refers to the case when, if most of the population is immune, infection of a single individual will not cause an epidemic. Also, in such immunized populations, susceptible individuals are not likely to become infected. Herd immunity can also refer to the case when unprotected individuals fail to contract a disease because the infecting organism has been banished from the population.