Naming diseases

[David Bowie]

In the thread "second thoughts on Nkinis",
"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:

: In recent years there seems to have been some effort to remove these
: possessive endings entirely: e.g.:

: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/style_guide_p2_3.htm

: ... where the CDC stipulates:

: Diseases or syndromes named after a person or place are generally not
: possessive:

: Bright disease
: Chagas disease
: Down syndrome
: Hodgkin disease
: Kaposi sarcoma
: Kawasaki syndrome
: Lyme disease
: Marfan syndrome
: Minimata disease
: Reye syndrome
: Rocky Mountain spotted fever

One problem with this list has been pointed out; another is that the words
disease, syndrome, sarcoma, and spotted are all consonant-initial. I find it
easy to believe these could all work without the 's, but i have a harder
time believing "Broca aphasia" and "Wernicke aphasia" will take firm root,
particularly when spoken.

<snip>

David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
    Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
    house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
    chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.