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Glossary

Selected words and phrases

duration of ruptured membranes – time between when the mother’s waters break and the actual delivery.

macrophage – large white blood cell that engulfs or ‘eats’ infectious organisms and waste material from dead cells.

specificity – when referring to the accuracy of a test result, specificity refers to the proportion of people who do not have an illness or disease who have a negative test result.

If a test has low specificity, the concern is over false-positive results – where people who to not have a condition are wrongly diagnosed as having it.

If a test has high specificity, then people who to not have a condition are correctly ruled out from the condition.

For a serious condition, high specificity is essential to prevent people being unnecessarily treated.

Online calculator.

See sensitivity.

DOT (directly observed therapy) – where a nurse or other healthcare worker observes or supervises someone take medicine.

mortality – medical word for death or dying.