blackwater fever

American  

noun

Pathology.

1. a severe form of malaria characterized by kidney damage and hemoglobinuria resulting in urine that is dark red or black.

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blackwater fever British  

noun

1. med a rare and serious complication of malaria, characterized by massive destruction of red blood cells, producing dark red or blackish urine

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Etymology

Origin of blackwater fever

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

blackwater fever

The disease can produce severe maternal anemia, iron deficiency, or it can spread to the kidneys and the lungs and cause a condition known as blackwater fever.

From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2024

Utterly finished, the major contracted blackwater fever in jail and died too.

From Time Magazine Archive

If it were correct, one would expect blackwater fever to be regularly prevalent in malarial countries and to be more or less coextensive with the use of quinine, which is not at all the case.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 1 "Bisharin" to "Bohea" by Various

It often resembles yellow fever, but the characteristic black vomit of yellow fever rarely occurs in blackwater fever, while the black urine from which the latter derives its name is equally rare in the former.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 1 "Bisharin" to "Bohea" by Various

Died of blackwater fever before the line got past this camp.

From The Sea and the Jungle by Tomlinson, H. M. (Henry Major)