toxic shock syndrome

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An acute infection characterized by high fever, a sunburnlike rash, vomiting, and diarrhea, followed in severe cases by shock, that is caused by a toxin-producing strain of the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, occurring chiefly among menstruating females who use tampons.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun pathology An acute infection by Staphylococcus bacteria, characterised by sudden high fever, muscle aches, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, and fainting, abbreviated TSS.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun 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