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The incubation period is the interval from infection to symptom onset in a person who develops symptoms. Its probability distribution describes onset times, not the full timing of infectiousness. Exposure may only be known to fall in an interval, requiring a corresponding observation model when estimating this distribution.

Quarantine restricts contacts of exposed individuals whose infection status is uncertain, with monitoring to detect illness. It differs from isolation of recognized infected or ill individuals. An incubation period quantile can enter a duration calculation, but assumptions about exposure time, symptom detection and infectiousness are needed before the calculation describes transmission risk.

A human prion disease associated with exposure to the BSE agent. Exposure totals and clinical-onset totals measure different stages of the disease process; incubation periods and ascertainment affect their relationship.