The northern continent of the Western Hemisphere, extending northward from the Colombia-Panama border and including CENTRAL AMERICA, MEXICO, Caribbean area, the UNITED STATES, CANADA and GREENLAND. The term often refers more narrowly to MEXICO, continental UNITED STATES, AND CANADA.
Materials or substances used in the composition of traditional medical remedies. The use of this term in MeSH was formerly restricted to historical articles or those concerned with traditional medicine, but it can also refer to homeopathic remedies. Nosodes are specific types of homeopathic remedies prepared from causal agents or disease products.
Notification or reporting by a physician or other health care provider of the occurrence of specified contagious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV infections to designated public health agencies. The United States system of reporting notifiable diseases evolved from the Quarantine Act of 1878, which authorized the US Public Health Service to collect morbidity data on cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever; each state in the US has its own list of notifiable diseases and depends largely on reporting by the individual health care provider. (From Segen, Dictionary of Modern Medicine, 1992)
