Re: [HAPS-L] Disease/Syndrome names

["Sheri Boyce" <sboyce@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

It seems to me that lately there is a trend to drop the "'s", e.g. Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease etc.  I have seen this in multiple sources, from lay articles to texts to websites.  Wikipedia lists it as Alzheimer's but also says "The term Alzheimer disease (without the apostrophe and s) also continues to be used commonly in the literature."  For Parkinson's disease, Wikipedia states "Parkinson's disease (also known as Parkinson disease or PD)..."

So it seems that either form is used, albeit one more commonly than the other.


Sheri


>>> Alan Magid <amagid@xxxxxxxxx> 02/14/07 12:15 PM >>>
Craig,

I understood your question. I thought the implication of my response was
clear.

When a disease is named for the person who first described it (or who was
the first to be recognized for that), the illness is given an eponymic name
using the possessive case (Addison¹s disease, Peyronne¹s disease,
Huntington¹s chorea, non-Hodgkin¹s lymphoma, etc.).

If it¹s named for the place associated with it (a so-called toponym), it
just takes the noun (Lyme disease for Lyme, Connecticut, Hendra fever,
German measles, French pox, Dutch elm disease, etc.). I included a snippet
from Wiki that had that info. I have now trimmed away all of the snippet
except for one sentence. See below.

-Alan


From: <clifford@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: <HAPS-L@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:42:26 -0600
To: <HAPS-L@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [HAPS-L] Disease/Syndrome names

Thanks, Alan, for the quick reply but that was not what I was asking. I was
inquiring about the apostrophe s on some but not others.  Is it just
tradition as to what was first published?  Are there any rules? Do new names
not use the possessive whereas in the past there were?
Craig

Alan Magid wrote:
>  
> 1, the doc who described it.
> 2. the place where first recognized.
> 
>> >From wiki:
> 
> It is named after the town of Lyme, Connecticut where a
> cluster of cases was identified in 1975, although clinical features of the
> disease had been described in Europe as early as 1909.
> 
> 
>   
>  
>>  
>> From: <clifford@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> <mailto:clifford@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Reply-To: <HAPS-L@xxxxxxxxxxx> <mailto:HAPS-L@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 08:16:38 -0600
>> To: <HAPS-L@xxxxxxxxxxx> <mailto:HAPS-L@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Subject: [HAPS-L] Disease/Syndrome names
>> 
>> Why are some disease/syndrome/condition etc. names possessive, like
>> Huntington's disease and others, like Lyme Disease, not possesive?  We
>> all know the diseases do not belong to these persons or places.  Is it
>> usage and tradition?
>> Craig Clifford
>>     
>>  
>  
> 
> 
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