GC: n
S: NIH (last access: 18 December 2025); WHO (last access: 18 December 2025).
N: 1. In mathematics, “quantity having magnitude and direction,” 1846; earlier in astronomy, “line joining a fixed point and a variable point” (1704); from Latin vector “one who carries or conveys, carrier” (also “one who rides”), agent noun from past-participle stem of vehere “carry, convey” (from PIE root *wegh- “to go, move, transport in a vehicle”). By 1961 in computing. Also, as an adjective. Related: Vectorial.
2. In Medicine vectors are essentially vehicles designed to deliver therapeutic genetic material, such as a working gene, directly into a cell. There are four main types of viral vectors (adeno-associated viral, adenoviral, lentiviral, retroviral) each with their own unique characteristics, uses, and limitations.
Vectors are frequently arthropods, such as mosquitoes, ticks, flies, fleas and lice.
Vectors can transmit infectious diseases either actively or passively:
- Biological vectors, such as mosquitoes and ticks, may carry pathogens that can multiply within their bodies and be delivered to new hosts, usually by biting.
- Mechanical vectors, such as flies can pick up infectious agents on the outside of their bodies and transmit them through physical contact.
3. Vectors are a confusing concept. In both mathematics and physics, vectors are a significant topic, but the concept is approached differently. Vectors in mathematics and physics are quantities that possess both magnitude and direction, distinguishing them from scalars, which only have magnitude.
- Mathematically, a vector is represented as a directed line segment or an array, and operations such as addition and scalar multiplication follow specific rules, including the Triangle Law and properties like commutativity and associativity.
- In physics, vectors are crucial in fields such as fluid dynamics, electromagnetism, and mechanics, where they describe forces, velocity, and momentum. Additionally, the study of vector fields, which represent the influence of forces across a region, is vital in understanding electric and magnetic phenomena. Ultimately, the principles of vectors and their calculus continue to be integral to both theoretical and applied sciences.
4. Microbiology and Parasitology; Human Diseases; Animal Diseases; Plant Diseases: vector, disease vector.
- An insect or a living carrier that transports an infectious agent from an infected host to a susceptible host, their food or their immediate surroundings.
- Examples of vectors include insects, parasites and rodents.
- vector; disease vector: designations standardized by the Canadian Capability-Based Planning Terminology Committee and the Translation Bureau (Canada).
- vector: designation officially approved by the Joint Terminology Panel and the Defence Terminology Standardization Board.
- Phraseology: vector distribution, vector ecology, zoonotic disease vector.
5. Cultural Interrelation:
- The movie The Vector File (2002) is an example of what a vector could be because tells the gripping story of the covert loss of a mutant strain of the DNA code for Smallpox from a secret Russian biological facility known as Vector. Director: Eliot Christopher. Producers: Grant Bradley, Dieter Stempnierwsky.
S: 1. Etymonline (last access: 18 December 2025). 2. ASGCT (last access: 18 December 2025); EFSA (last access: 18 December 2025). 3. EBSCO (last access: 18 December 2025). 4. TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 18 December 2025). 5. NZFILM (last access: 18 December 2025).
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CR: Aedes aegypti, Aedes japonicus, African trypanosomiasis, anopheline, arthropod, borreliosis, chikungunya virus, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, dengue virus, eradication, filariasis, hemorrhagic fever, louse, Lyme disease, mosquito, parasitosis, phasmid, protozoiasis, Q fever, Stegomyia albopicta, Toxorhynchites rutilus, trachoma, transgenesis, transmissible disease, trench fever, trypanosome, West Nile fever, Zika virus disease.
