relapsing fever

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

• noun Any of several infectious diseases characterized by chills and fever and caused by spirochetes transmitted by lice and ticks.

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

• noun pathology an infection caused by certain bacteria of the genus Borrelia, transmitted by lice and ticks

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

• noun marked by recurring high fever and transmitted by the bite of infected lice or ticks; characterized by episodes of high fever and chills and headache and muscle pain and nausea that recur every week or ten days for several months