Sorry I have to ask this?

Question

It's been "plaguing" me all day!

Illnesses and diseases, are they named after the people who first discovered them or treated them?

Like: "Hey Ma, Did you hear what Henry Gonorrhea discovered today?"

If not where do the names come from?

Answer 1

The naming of diseases tends to occur over a prolonged period of time by a consensus of doctors, researchers and other peers of the discoverer. It is often unclear at the time of a disease's first description that it is truly new: The condition might be two or more established diseases occurring together as mere coincidence, or it could be an unusual manifestation of a well-established disease. Such confusion may last years — the initial cases of Lyme disease were initially thought to represent an unusual collection of cases of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Professional organizations may be involved in "officially" naming an illness, so that everyone involved in its study and treatment call it the same thing.

There is no single way that illnesses are named, and, unfortunately, the best names do not always catch on — even when a logical name is chosen and endorsed by a professional organization, it may not be the name that most people use. For example, to protect individuals' privacy, diseases are rarely if ever intentionally named after the person with the illness, but that's what happened with Lou Gehrig's disease. Although the official name is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), this degenerative nerve disease continues to carry the name of Lou Gehrig, a baseball hero who tragically succumbed to the disease.

Answer 2

There are some diseases named after people and places. These are called "eponymous diseases". However, I am not sure whether by people these include patients. What would happen if X "discovered" a disease and it's named after them...only that they "discover" another one...shouldn't that be named after the patient?

I know that Menke's disease is after person; Patau Syndrom was "rediscovered" by Klaus Patau in 1959/60.

Answer 3

Generally I think its the one that suffers from it first or makes people aware of it.

For e.g.
Like by the time that Edward Jenner had discovered a cure for the cow pox, it had been already been discovered and he didnt get the disease named after him.

Funny way of stating it though Jovvijo. Shame and I always thought the name was your legacy in this case . . .

I guess not! hahahaha

Answer 4

A lot of named for the person who first recognized them but some are just named for the virus.

Alzheimer's Disease is after the person who pinpointed it for instance and as you say Gonorrhea, Don't think Cancer is after a person though.

Answer 5

I'm sorry... I have to be a dimwit really coz I burst out laughing after reading this then going: "Yeah... what gives?"

Henry Gonorrhea!!? Ha, ha, ha!!! There's a contributor here who wont like that example...!

PS: guys, I at least learnt something from your replies as well.

Answer 6

Most are just compound words made up of latin word parts for different conditions and body parts.

Hepatitis = Liver inflammation (hepat =liver, itis=inflammation)
There's sites with lists of medical terminology and how they get the names of diseases.

But alot of them are named for either A)the doctors who first discovered the conditions, and B) the patients who were first diagnosed (Lou Gherig's , Alzheimer's, etc.)

Answer 7

Some are, some are not.
I wouldn't want any named after me, unless I had found a cure for it.

Answer 8

So does anyone know Mr Siphillus?

Answer 9

If that were the case, acute alcoholism could be renamed Mbekism, infection with HIV through rape could be Zumasm and paralysis of the brain could be ANCism.

Answer 10

Sometimes, but more often they are compositions of latin base words.