World Rare Disease Day is observed every year on the last day of February.
What is Rare Disease?
A rare disease also referred to as an orphan disease, is any disease that affects a small percentage of the population.
Each rare disease may only affect a handful of people, scattered around the world, but taken together with the number of people directly affected is equivalent to the population of the world’s third-largest country.
What causes rare diseases?
There are many different causes of rare diseases. The majority are thought to be genetic, directly caused by changes in genes or chromosomes.
In some cases, genetic changes that cause disease are passed from one generation to the next.
In other cases, they occur randomly in a person who is the first in a family to be diagnosed.
Many rare diseases, including infections, some rare cancers, and some autoimmune diseases, are not inherited.
The most common rare diseases identified in India are Haemophilia, Thalassemia, Sickle-cell Anaemia, Primary Immuno Deficiency, Lysosomal Storage Disorders such as Gaucher Disease, Fabry Disease, Hunter Syndrome, and Pompe’s Disease.
Rare Diseases Day
Context:
World Rare Disease Day is observed every year on the last day of February.
What is Rare Disease?
What causes rare diseases?