The quality or state of being avirulent; the reduced ability of a pathogen to cause disease or harm.
From a- (not) + virulence (from Latin virulentus, poisonous). The prefix a- negates virulence, creating the opposite condition.
Medical researchers deliberately reduce a pathogen's virulence to create vaccines—they make diseases weaker on purpose, and this process has saved hundreds of millions of lives throughout history.
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