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plague
plague
The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English
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2009
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© The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2009, originally published by Oxford University Press 2009. (Hide copyright information)
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plague
/ plāg/
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n.
a contagious bacterial disease characterized by fever and delirium, typically with the formation of buboes (see bubonic plague) and sometimes infection of the lungs (
pneumonic plague):
an outbreak of plague
they died of the plague.
∎
a contagious disease that spreads rapidly and kills many people.
∎
an unusually large number of insects or animals infesting a place and causing damage:
a plague of fleas.
∎ [in sing.]
a thing causing trouble or irritation:
staff theft is usually the plague of restaurants.
∎
a widespread affliction regarded as divine punishment:
the plagues of Egypt.
∎ [in sing.] archaic
used as a curse or an expression of despair or disgust:
a plague on all their houses!
•
v.
(plagues
, plagued
, pla·guing
) [tr.]
cause continual trouble or distress to:
the problems that plagued the company
he has been plagued by ill health.
∎
pester or harass (someone) continually:
he was plaguing her with questions.
ORIGIN:
late Middle English: Latin plaga ‘stroke, wound,’ probably from Greek (Doric dialect) plaga, from a base meaning ‘strike.’
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Plague: from natural disease to bioterrorism.
Magazine article from: Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings; 4/1/2005; ; 700+ words
; ...Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of plague, an enzootic vectorborne disease usually...usually occurs in the form of bubonic plague. In rare cases, the infection spreads...bloodstream and causes secondary pneumonic plague. Person-to-person transmission has...
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Plague and the human flea, Tanzania.
Magazine article from: Emerging Infectious Diseases; 5/1/2007; ; 700+ words
; ...Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. Of these, 7 are considered villages with high plague frequency, where human plague was recorded during at least 6 of the 17 plague seasons between 1986 and 2004. In the remaining 5 villages with low plague frequency...
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 "Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)")
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PLAGUE WOULD STRIKE AGAIN AND AGAIN AFTER TERRORIST ATTACK, ANIMALS COULD BREED SECONDARY OUTBREAKS.(City Desk/Local)
Newspaper article from: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO); 8/26/2002; ; 700+ words
; ...Erickson ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS Long after the plague cloud from a bioterror attack has dispersed...U.S. cities, deliberately released plague could infect rats and trigger secondary...populations. In areas of the West where plague is endemic - including Colorado, a plague...
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Plague in India posed little threat to U.S. public health.
Magazine article from: Journal of Environmental Health; 4/1/1995; ; 700+ words
; ...Recent outbreaks or bubonic and pneumonic plague in India posed little threat to public...someone showed symptoms suggestive of plague, they were examined by a physician, and if they had the plague they were to be quarantined until they...
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Pneumonic plague cluster, Uganda, 2004.(RESEARCH)
Magazine article from: Emerging Infectious Diseases; 3/1/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...clinicians have long-held beliefs that pneumonic plague is highly contagious; inappropriate alarm...communicability in a naturally occurring pneumonic plague cluster. We defined a probable pneumonic plague case as an acute-onset respiratory illness...
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Plagues, healers and patients in early modern Europe.
Magazine article from: Renaissance Quarterly; 6/22/1999; ; 700+ words
; ...enormous historical literature. Plagues were a constant presence in...1975-1976), concluded that plague struck somewhere in Europe...massive epidemic of bubonic plague, a disease of rats caused...inconsistent with those of bubonic plague. One of the most difficult...
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Plague on the increase in New Mexico
Magazine article from: DVM; 7/1/1998; ; 700+ words
; ...carefully monitoring a recent epidemic of plague that erupted in mid-May in the northwestern...dogs were confirmed to have laboratory plague, however no human cases were reported...domestic animals is caused by a massive plague epizootic in the wildlife rodent population...
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Plague in the Big Apple: rare cases trigger bioterrorism response: 'it was pneumonic plague until proven otherwise'.
Newspaper article from: Hospital Employee Health; 7/1/2003; 700+ words
; ...possibility of bioterrorism. A case of plague (Yersinia pestis) had not been seen...unilateral inguinal adenopathy suggestive of plague. In time, the telltale buboes--swollen...appear as the classic marker for bubonic plague. As the news got out, a newspaper headline...
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Plague unlikely to reach U.S., but caution still advised, scientists say. (Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)
Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service; 9/27/1994; ; 700+ words
; ...an outbreak of deadly and fast-moving plague in India will spread into the United States...Control and Prevention began handing out ``plague alert notices'' to airline passengers...advises travelers of the threat posed by plague and asks them to seek medical treatment...
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Plague in Madagascar- Maybe Closer, Maybe Soon?
Magazine article from: Infectious Disease Alert; 4/1/2000; 700+ words
; Plague in Madagascar Maybe Closer, Maybe Soon? abstract & commentary...of Madagascar point to an ongoing epidemic of urban and sylvatic plague in Madagascar. Bubonic plague may be difficult to recognize clinically and progression to pneumonic...
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Plague
Encyclopedia entry from: Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 3rd ed.
Plague Definition Plague is a serious, potentially life-threatening infectious disease that...of the disease: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic. Description Plague has been responsible for three great world pandemics, which caused...
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plagues of Egypt
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
...of Egypt in the Bible, the plagues and other troubles brought on...relented each time until the plague was removed, then hardened...them into the Red Sea. The plagues were 10 in number: plague of blood by which the waters...
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plague
Book article from: The Renaissance
plague The generic term plague covers a host of epidemic diseases, with the most familiar being...from “ bubo ” comes the term “ bubonic plague ” ). In the Middle Ages, the bacillus was spread by a...
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Bubonic Plague
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security
Bubonic Plague █ BRIAN HOYLE A concern of health and defense officials is the possible deliberate introduction of plague — or the exploitation of plague — as a terrorist weapon. Plague causing microorganisms...
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Bubonic plague
Encyclopedia entry from: The Gale Encyclopedia of Science
Bubonic plague Bubonic plague is a disease that is typically passed from rodents to other animals...the groin. During the Middle Ages, an huge epidemic of bubonic plague was referred to as the Black Death, because of the blackening of...
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