Prepatent

Before parasites can be successfully diagnosed after an infection, sexual (e.g. worm-worm eggs) or asexual reproduction (e.g. malaria trophozoites) of the parasite in the host must take place.

The period between infection by a parasite and the appearance of diagnosable first sexual products (eggs, larvae, etc.) in the stool, urine or blood.

Otherwise, in microbiology the incubation period is given, which defines the time between infection and the appearance of the first symptoms of the disease. The preparation is followed by the patent. Knowledge of preparation times helps to evaluate certain suspected parasitological cases. For example, the first diagnosable blood stages of Plasmodium falciparum(Malaria tropica) occur at the earliest 7 days after infection.