The Collaborative International Dictionary
Contagious disease \Con*ta"gious dis*ease"\ (Med.) A disease communicable by contact with a patient suffering from it, or with some secretion of, or object touched by, such a patient. Most such diseases have already been proved to be germ diseases, and their communicability depends on the transmission of the living germs. Many germ diseases are not contagious, some special method of transmission or inoculation of the germs being required.
WordNet
n. any disease easily transmitted by contact [syn: contagion]
Wikipedia
A contagious disease is a subset category of transmissible diseases, usually infections or some non-infection diseases, which are transmitted to other persons, either by physical contact with the person suffering the disease, or by casual contact with their secretions or objects touched by them or airborne route among other routes.
Non-contagious infections, by contrast, usually require a special mode of transmission between persons or hosts. These include need for intermediate vector species ( mosquitoes that cause malaria) or by non-casual transfer of bodily fluid (such as transfusions, needle sharing or sexual contact). They can also be inherited from parents or caused by environmental or behavioral factors.
The boundary between contagious and non-contagious infectious diseases is not perfectly drawn, as illustrated classically by tuberculosis, which is clearly transmissible from person to person, but was not classically considered a contagious disease. In the present day, most sexually transmitted diseases are considered contagious, but only some of them are subject to medical isolation.
Usage examples of "contagious disease".
Basic and advanced life support, basic and advanced trauma first response, basic and advanced contagious disease techniques .
We're used to isolating patients with lowered resistance to disease, not cases of fatal contagious disease.
While Tia would not have put it past someone with problems to sell out to smugglers, she didn't think that they'd care to cover up a contagious disease this hideous.
If there's any chance that a contagious disease has wiped out Snowfield, or some kind of environmental poisoning—.
And the committee said, we like your proposal, but oh dear, Yeyuka is a contagious disease, so you’.
Experts say there is no reason to suspect that the highly contagious disease is being transmitted in the food and beverages being served at the Amazing Kingdom.