septicemic plague

septicemic plague

n.

A usually fatal form of bubonic plague in which the bacilli are present in the bloodstream and cause toxemia.

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septicemic plague

[sep′tisē′mik]

a rapidly fatal form of bubonic plague in which septicemia with meningitis occurs before buboes have had time to form. Compare bubonic plague, pneumonic plague. See also plague, Yersinia pestis.

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plague

an epidemic of disease attended by great mortality.

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bubonic plague

an acute febrile, infectious, highly fatal disease caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis. It is primarily a disease of rats and other rodents, dogs and cats, and is usually spread to humans by fleas. The more common form of plague is the bubonic. There is also a pneumonic type in humans, which can be spread directly from person to person by droplet infection. The clinical signs in all species are fever, vomiting and enlargement of lymph nodes, the buboes that give the disease its name.

cattle plague

see rinderpest.

duck plague

an acute infectious disease of ducks caused by a herpesvirus and characterized by tissue hemorrhages and blood free in body cavities, eruptions on the mucosae of the digestive tract, degeneration of parenchymatous organs and lesions in lymph nodes. Called also duck virus enteritis.

equine plague

see african horse sickness.

fowl plague

see avian influenza.

pneumonic plague

see bubonic plague (above).

septicemic plague

hematogenous spread of infection to many organs may occur without the formation of buboes; occurs in the cat with pulmonary involvement, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and death.

swine plague

see swine plague.

sylvatic plague

bubonic plague in wild animals in uninhabited areas. See also sylvatic plague.