relaps'ing

Recurring, said of a disease which returns in a new attack after convalescence has begun. African r. fe'ver, tick fever, an infectious disease marked by a number of recurring attacks of fever with headache and (in Europe ans) vomiting; the latter symptom is le constant in the native the fever lasts about three days, but the apyretic interval be from a few days to several weeks; the specific parasite of the form occurring in West Africa, and probably also in South Africa, is a spirochete, Spiroschaudinnia duttoni, the intermediate host of which is a tick, Ornithodoros moubata; the jiarasite of the North African form is Spiroschaudinnia berbera which is probably transmitted by lice. Amer'ican r. fe'ver, an acute specific fever, observed in orth America, resembling closely the European type, caused by Spiroschaudinnia novyi; two other types, po ibly distinct from this, have been described in Central and South America. Asiat'ic r. fe'ver, an acute specific relapsing fever endemic in various parts of Asia, caused by Spiroschaudinnia carter i and spread by means of some blood-sucking insect. Europe'an r. fe'ver, recurrent fever, an acute infectious disease caused by the Spirochata obermeieri (Spiroschaudinnia recurrenlis); it is marked by a number of febrile attacks lasting about six days and separated from each other by apyretic intervals of about the same length; the microorganism is found in the blood during the febrile periods but not in the intervals; the intermediate host is believed to be the bedbug, Cimex lectularius.