contagious vs infective

contagious

adj
  • Having a disease that can be transmitted to another person. 

  • Easily transmitted to others. 

  • Easily passed on to others. 

infective

adj
  • Able to cause infection; infectious 

noun
  • A person who is capable of spreading a disease by infecting others. 

How often have the words contagious and infective occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )