Fulminant

Fulminant: Fulminate is a medical adjective meaning that a disease progresses very rapidly. Prior to the medicinal use of of the Latin root meaning to strike with lightening, the primary use was the compound mercury fulminate - a highly explosive isomer of mercury cyanate.

Also, all three were fulminant cases. The people all died within twelve hours or so of their first symptoms.

A Book for Today: Contagion by Robin Cook