Dreadful times when sickness is around (7)
I believe the answer is:
abysmal
'dreadful' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'times when sickness is around' is the wordplay.
'times' becomes 'by' (both can mean 'multiplied by').
'when' becomes 'as' (eg 'when I walked' means 'as I walked').
'sickness' becomes 'mal' (I've seen this before).
'is around' indicates putting letters inside.
'as'+'mal'='asmal'
'by' put into 'asmal' is 'ABYSMAL'.
(Other definitions for abysmal that I've seen before include "Extreme and deplorable as ignorance may be" , "Very deep or bad" , "Bottomless - profound" , "Extremely bad - lamb, say (anag)" , "Very bad, poor" .)