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Rocky Mountain spotted fever definition

☆ Rocky Mountain spotted fever

an acute infectious disease caused by a rickettsia (Rickettsia rickettsii), transmitted to human beings by certain ticks (esp. genus Dermacentor), and characterized by fever, muscular pains, and skin eruptions

Etymology: from being first discovered in the Rocky Mountains

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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