Country of disease acquisition

In general, the list of country names corresponds to accepted geographical and political designations. Certain territories, protectorates, etc are listed separately when their infectious disease status differs significantly from that of the 'mother' country. Thus Puerto Rico and Guam are processed as autonomous epidemiological entities by GIDEON. In contrast, newer countries or semi-autonomous regions (ie, East Timor, Scotland) will continue to appear in this program as part of the mother-nation (ie, Indonesia, United Kingdom). The option "Worldwide" is useful when generating a comprehensive list of diseases associated with a specific clinical finding worldwide.

Country Synonym

There are cases when you know a country by another name, such as Burma, which is not in the general country list. You can use the Synonyms option in Diagnosis and Epidemiology Fingerprint by clicking to find a current or past name. You can also use this option for other cases:

• Part of a country, e.g., Corsica (France).
• Older names, e.g., French Somaliland (Djibouti).