The act of transmitting an infection or disease from one part of your body to another part through contact, scratching, or poor hygiene.
From Greek 'auto' (self) and Latin 'inoculatio' (grafting, implanting). The medical term developed in dermatology and parasitology in the 19th-20th centuries.
Chickenpox causes intense itching, but scratching spreads the virus to new areas of skin—this autoinoculation is why the infection spreads across your whole body rather than staying in one spot.
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