An epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality. The plague wiped out a third of Europe's population in the 1700s. A substance produced or derived from certain fungi, bacteria, and other organisms that can destroy or inhibit the growth of other microorganisms, and is widely used in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. All kids carry these bugs. They not only cause ear and sinus infections, but also life-threatening blood infections, meningitis, and pneumonia, and new drug resistant strains are difficult to treat.
Bacteria are the Earth's most ancient and numerous creatures.
A disease caused by the Pneumococcus bacterium in which inflammation of the meninges occurs. Cells normally present in blood which act as defenders against invading bacteria and viruses. Malaria, a disease spread by mosquitos, kills more than two million people every year. The immature, wingless, and often wormlike feeding form that hatches from the egg of many insects, alters chiefly in size while passing through several molts, and is finally transformed into a pupa or chrysalis from which the adult emerges. Within a few days they hatch into larvae.