INFECTIOUS DISEASE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does infectious disease mean? 

• INFECTIOUS DISEASE (noun)
  The noun INFECTIOUS DISEASE has 1 sense:

1. a disease transmitted only by a specific kind of contact

  Familiarity information: INFECTIOUS DISEASE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INFECTIOUS DISEASE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A disease transmitted only by a specific kind of contact

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("infectious disease" is a kind of...):

communicable disease (a disease that can be communicated from one person to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "infectious disease"):

epidemic parotitis; mumps (an acute contagious viral disease characterized by fever and by swelling of the parotid glands)

black vomit; yellow fever; yellow jack (caused by a flavivirus transmitted by a mosquito)

frambesia; framboesia; yaws (an infectious tropical disease resembling syphilis in its early stages; marked by red skin eruptions and ulcerating lesions)

pertussis; whooping cough (a disease of the respiratory mucous membrane)

enteric fever; typhoid; typhoid fever (serious infection marked by intestinal inflammation and ulceration; caused by Salmonella typhosa ingested with food or water)

T.B.; TB; tuberculosis (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))

miliary fever; sweating sickness (epidemic in the 15th and 16th centuries and characterized by profuse sweating and high mortality)

rheumatic fever (a severe disease chiefly of children and characterized by painful inflammation of the joints and frequently damage to the heart valves)

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)

rickettsial disease; rickettsiosis (infectious disease caused by ticks or mites or body lice infected with rickettsial bacteria)

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)

acute anterior poliomyelitis; infantile paralysis; polio; poliomyelitis (an acute viral disease marked by inflammation of nerve cells of the brain stem and spinal cord)

paratyphoid; paratyphoid fever (any of a variety of infectious intestinal diseases resembling typhoid fever)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

herpes (viral diseases causing eruptions of the skin or mucous membrane)

hepatitis (inflammation of the liver caused by a virus or a toxin)

epidemic disease (any infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people)

dysentery (an infection of the intestines marked by severe diarrhea)

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)

Asiatic cholera; cholera; epidemic cholera; Indian cholera (an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of contaminated water or food)

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)

 Context examples 

The protection against infectious disease conferred by the immune response.

(Immunity, NCI Thesaurus)

A technique used to cause an immune response that results in resistance to a specific disease, especially an infectious disease.

(Immunization, NCI Dictionary)

The condition of being protected against an infectious disease.

(Immunity, NCI Dictionary)

Protected against infectious disease by either specific or non-specific mechanisms.

(Immune, NCI Thesaurus)

People who inject the drug also risk getting infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

(Heroin, NIH: National Institute on Drug Abuse)

It is seen frequently in chronic infectious diseases.

(Hypergammaglobulinemia, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Health care workers can take steps to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

(Infection Control, NIH)

Infectious diseases kill more people worldwide than any other single cause.

(Infectious Diseases, NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

Measles is an infectious disease caused by a virus.

(Measles, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

The type species of RUBULAVIRUS that causes an acute infectious disease in humans, affecting mainly children.

(Mumps Virus, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)