Main Entry: Christ·mas disease

Pronunciation: \ˈkris-məs-\

Function: noun

: a hereditary sex-linked hemorrhagic disease involving absence of a coagulation factor in the blood and failure of the clotting mechanism—called also hemophilia B; compare hemophilia

Christmas, Stephen British child patient. Christmas was the youngest of seven patients in a study at an Oxford, England, hospital undertaken by Rosemary Biggs and her associates of a newly discovered condition resembling hemophilia. Christmas was the first patient examined in detail, and the disease was named after him. In 1952, Biggs and her associates published their first article on Christmas disease.