Here are some examples of diseases named after people:
- Crohn’s disease – Named after Burrill Bernard Crohn, one of the physicians who first described the inflammatory bowel disease.
- Salmonellosis – Named after Daniel Elmer Salmon, the veterinary pathologist who ran a USDA research program that discovered the Salmonella bacteria.
- Parkinson’s disease – Named after James Parkinson, the English apothecary who published a landmark study on the “shaking palsy” in 1817.
- Huntington’s disease – Named after George Huntington, who published the first formal description of the neurodegenerative disorder in 1872.
- Alzheimer’s disease – Named after Alois Alzheimer, the German neuropathologist who first described the presenile dementia in 1906.
- Tourette syndrome – Named after Georges Gilles de la Tourette, the French neurologist who first described the tic disorder in 1884.
- Hodgkin’s lymphoma – Named after Thomas Hodgkin, the British pathologist who first described the cancer in 1832.
- Bright’s disease – Named after Richard Bright, the English physician who described various kidney disorders in the 1820s.
- Addison’s disease – Named after Thomas Addison, the British physician who first described the adrenal disorder in 1855.
- Tay-Sachs disease – Named after Warren Tay and Bernard Sachs, who independently described the genetic disorder.
There are some diseases named after patients, such as Lou Gehrig’s disease, Hartnup disease, and Mortimer disease. Additionally, a few diseases are named after fictional characters, like Miss Havisham syndrome and Plyushkin syndrome.
Diseases Named After Places
Some examples of diseases named after geographic locations include:
- Ebola virus – Named after the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where it was first discovered[2]
- Lyme disease – Named after Lyme, Connecticut where it was first identified[1]
- Bornholm disease – Named after the Danish island of Bornholm where it was first described[5]
- Spanish flu – Likely did not originate in Spain, but the country was the first to report on the outbreak due to lack of wartime censorship[1][2]
- “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese virus” for COVID-19 – Can lead to stigmatization and backlash against certain communities.
Current Disease Naming
While historically diseases have often been named after the places they were first discovered, this practice is now discouraged by health authorities due to the potential for stigma and inaccuracy. Current convention is to avoid naming diseases after geographic locations, people’s names, animals, or other references that could lead to stigmatization or inaccurate associations. WHO guidelines state that disease names should:
- Use generic descriptive terms based on symptoms, without referring to geographic locations, people’s names, animals, or cultural/population references
- If the pathogen is known, it should be part of the disease name (e.g. coronavirus, influenza virus)
- Avoid terms that could incite undue fear (e.g. unknown, fatal, epidemic)
There is controversy about this topic. Some feel that avoiding stigmatization is far less important than determining and sharing the factual origins of diseases in order to understand and prevent them.
Citations
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_diseases
[2] https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/27317/13-medical-conditions-named-after-people
[3] https://www.wikidoc.org/index.php/List_of_eponymous_diseases
[4] https://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/rare/10-diseases-named-after-people.htm
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3503899/
