Definition of "streptococcus" []

• A round to ovoid, gram-positive, often pathogenic bacterium of the genus Streptococcus that occurs in pairs or chains, many species of which destroy red blood cells and cause various diseases in humans, including erysipelas, scarlet fever, and strep throat. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "ANDREWS: Yes, my wife had something called streptococcus B, and she needed to be on antibiotics during the delivery, either C-section or natural, or else the baby could die."
• "Having studied many cases of child-bed fever at the hospitals, he declared before a medical society that he had seen its cause, and challenged he drew a picture resembling a rosary of what we now know as a streptococcus, or chain coccus."
• "The rotavirus vaccine protects against severe vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration caused by the rotavirus; and the pneumococcal vaccine protects against serious infections such as pneumonia, meningitis, and blood poisoning, as well as ear infections caused by bacteria known as streptococcus pneumoniae."