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MEDLINE Indexing Online Training Course

Category C - Diseases

Infections

As with diseases discussed previously, look for the precise MeSH infection term. An article about scalded skin syndrome caused by Staphylococcus is indexed with the exact MeSH term, STAPHYLOCOCCAL SCALDED SKIN SYNDROME. If the precise infection term is not in MeSH, follow the same policy as with other diseases not in MeSH (coordinate two or more MeSH headings to index ALL aspects of the infection). For example, to index an article about Citrobacter urinary tract infection the indexer must go through the following steps.

  1. see if there is a precise MeSH heading (Citrobacter urinary tract infection) - there is not
  2. check for the MeSH heading urinary tract infection - there is
  3. check to see if there is the MeSH heading citrobacter infection - there is not
  4. check the MeSH heading CITROBACTER and look at the tree. CITROBACTER is treed under ENTEROBACTERIACEAE, for which we have the precoordinated infection term ENTEROBACTERIACEAE INFECTIONS

The correct indexing for Citrobacter urinary tract infection is:

CITROBACTER (IM)
ENTEROBACTERIACEAE INFECTIONS (IM)
URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS (IM)

Most MeSH headings for microorganisms are annotated with instructions for indexing infections caused by these microorganisms.

Last Reviewed: November 19, 2013