infectious disease

In`fec´tious dis`ease´

1.

Any disease caused by the entrance, growth, and multiplication of microorganisms in the body; a germ disease. It may not be contagious.

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infectious disease

A disease caused by a microorganism or other agent, such as a bacterium, fungus, or virus, that enters the body of an organism.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

infectious disease - a disease transmitted only by a specific kind of contact communicable disease - a disease that can be communicated from one person to another acquired immune deficiency syndrome, AIDS - a serious (often fatal) disease of the immune system transmitted through blood products especially by sexual contact or contaminated needles brucellosis, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Mediterranean fever, Rock fever, undulant fever - infectious bacterial disease of human beings transmitted by contact with infected animals or infected meat or milk products; characterized by fever and headache Asiatic cholera, cholera, epidemic cholera, Indian cholera - an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of contaminated water or food breakbone fever, dandy fever, dengue, dengue fever - an infectious disease of the tropics transmitted by mosquitoes and characterized by rash and aching head and joints dysentery - an infection of the intestines marked by severe diarrhea epidemic disease - any infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people hepatitis - inflammation of the liver caused by a virus or a toxin herpes - viral diseases causing eruptions of the skin or mucous membrane glandular fever, infectious mononucleosis, kissing disease, mono, mononucleosis - an acute disease characterized by fever and swollen lymph nodes and an abnormal increase of mononuclear leucocytes or monocytes in the bloodstream; not highly contagious; some believe it can be transmitted by kissing Hansen's disease, leprosy - chronic granulomatous communicable disease occurring in tropical and subtropical regions; characterized by inflamed nodules beneath the skin and wasting of body parts; caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae listeria meningitis, listeriosis - an infectious disease of animals and humans (especially newborn or immunosuppressed persons) caused by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes; in sheep and cattle the infection frequently involves the central nervous system and causes various neurological symptoms meningitis - infectious disease characterized by inflammation of the meninges (the tissues that surround the brain or spinal cord) usually caused by a bacterial infection; symptoms include headache and stiff neck and fever and nausea epidemic parotitis, mumps - an acute contagious viral disease characterized by fever and by swelling of the parotid glands paratyphoid, paratyphoid fever - any of a variety of infectious intestinal diseases resembling typhoid fever acute anterior poliomyelitis, infantile paralysis, polio, poliomyelitis - an acute viral disease marked by inflammation of nerve cells of the brain stem and spinal cord ratbite fever - either of two infectious diseases transmitted to humans by the bite of a rat or mouse; characterized by fever and headache and nausea and skin eruptions rickettsial disease, rickettsiosis - infectious disease caused by ticks or mites or body lice infected with rickettsial bacteria recurrent fever, relapsing fever - marked by recurring high fever and transmitted by the bite of infected lice or ticks; characterized by episodes of high fever and chills and headache and muscle pain and nausea that recur every week or ten days for several months rheumatic fever - a severe disease chiefly of children and characterized by painful inflammation of the joints and frequently damage to the heart valves miliary fever, sweating sickness - epidemic in the 15th and 16th centuries and characterized by profuse sweating and high mortality T.B., tuberculosis, TB - infection transmitted by inhalation or ingestion of tubercle bacilli and manifested in fever and small lesions (usually in the lungs but in various other parts of the body in acute stages) enteric fever, typhoid, typhoid fever - serious infection marked by intestinal inflammation and ulceration; caused by Salmonella typhosa ingested with food or water pertussis, whooping cough - a disease of the respiratory mucous membrane frambesia, framboesia, yaws - an infectious tropical disease resembling syphilis in its early stages; marked by red skin eruptions and ulcerating lesions black vomit, yellow fever, yellow jack - caused by a flavivirus transmitted by a mosquito