Medical Words Linked to Places

Many medical terms come from places: towns, rivers, islands, forests, mountains, valleys, countries, and continents. These toponymous diseases, syndromes, descriptors, and other entities bring us colorful names that help us recall some of their history. Today we have Zika virus, its name coming from the Zika Forest in Ghana. Caucasian comes from the Caucasus Mountains, lesbian from the island of Lesbos, and Epsom salts from a mineral spring in Epsom, Surrey, England. Chapter 10.1007/978-3-319-50328-8_5 tells the stories behind these place-named diseases and how many of them affect us today.