(used with a sing. v.) infectious, nonvenereal tropical disease, primarily of children, characterized by raspberrylike eruptions of the skin and caused by a spirochete, Treponema pertenue, that is closely related to the agent of syphilis
a contagious tropical disease caused by a spirochete (Treponema pertenue) closely resembling the causative agent of syphilis and marked by infectious ulcerative skin lesions with later bone involvement called also frambesia