For the next 7 days until Rare Disease Day on February 29th, I am going to share a few little facts about rare diseases to hopefully raise awareness for all of the orphan diseases out there! Unless otherwise noted, all information shared is from www.globalgenes.org.
So today, let's start with the definition of a rare disease.
- 30 million people in the United States are living with rare diseases. This equates to 1 in 10 Americans or 10% of the U.S. population. Similar to the United States, Europe has approximately 30 million people living with rare diseases. It is estimated that 350 million people worldwide suffer from rare diseases.
- If all of the people with rare diseases lived in one country, it would be the world’s 3rd most populous country.
- In the United States, a condition is considered “rare” it affects fewer than 200,000 persons combined in a particular rare disease group. International definitions on rare diseases vary. For example in the UK, a disease is considered rare if it affects fewer than 50,000 citizens per disease.
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