Fun stuff: Wegener's granulomatosis.

When someone has had what seems like allergic rhinitis for fifty thousand years, despite pouring on the Flonase and all but mainlining cetirizine, one begins (if one is as obsessed with rare diseases as I am) to think about Wegener's granulomatosis. It's an inflammatory condition--not a cancer, not an allergy--that eventually leads to extensive vasculitis (ie, inflammation of the blood vessels). It can cause problems especially in highly vascular organs--kidneys and lungs particularly. On microscopic examination, clumps of white blood cells are visible: granulomas. Hence the name.

However, there's now pressure to rename the disorder, in part because eponyms don't actually tell you very much about the condition itself (though I have to say the alternative proposed in this case--ANCA-related granulomatous vasculitis--doesn't tell me much more) and also because of Dr. Wegener's past. Apparently he was wanted by Polish officials after the end of WWII. Apparently he was, for at least a short period of time, associated with the operation of the eugenically-minded killfest that was Lodz in the late 30s.

How do I know this? Because the aforementionedly awesome Dr. W. brought it up in class.
"Haven't you heard Dr. L's tirade about this?" she asked one of the co-instructors. "I remember hearing him go on and on about this Nazi granulomatosis." Which made me imagine clumps of white blood cells wearing little olive drab uniforms and goose-stepping all over the body.