toxic shock syndrome

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

toxic shock syndrome
    n 1: syndrome resulting from a serious acute (sometimes fatal)
         infection associated with the presence of staphylococcus;
         characterized by fever and diarrhea and nausea and diffuse
         erythema and shock; occurs especially in menstruating women
         using highly absorbent tampons [syn: {toxic shock}, {toxic
         shock syndrome}, {TSS}]