Is it your Disease or the Patient’s?

Sami L. Bahna, Alexandria Brackett, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Available online 24 May 2016, ISSN 0002-9629, doi:10.1016/j.amjms.2016.05.016.

When the illness has several clinical and/or laboratory features but not all features are present in every patient it is usually called a syndrome rather than a disease.

Strictly speaking, apostrophe “s” reflects possessiveness. It is correct when the syndrome or disease is named after the first described patient e.g. Lou Gehrig’s disease. Much more commonly, a syndrome or disease has been linked to the name of the physician or scientist who first described it, as an honorific eponym, e.g. Friedreich ataxia. In such instances, an apostrophe or an “s” should not be used.