Rare diseases are a public health issue, said NCATS director Dr. Christopher Austin during NIH’s annual—and first virtual—observance of Rare Disease Day. People who have them make up about eight percent of the global population—that’s about the same proportion who have diabetes.
When parents learn their child has a rare disease, they must navigate the limited resources for conditions with few, if any, effective treatments. Two families share their rare disease journeys during NIH’s Rare Disease Day virtual event.
NIH director Dr. Francis Collins, NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci and NIMHD director Dr. Eliseo Pérez-Stable joined faith leaders, local health care providers and other public health officials to promote immunization against Covid-19 and inspire confidence in the coronavirus vaccines.
In a recent Contemporary Clinical Medicine: Great Teachers talk, Dr. Kim Yancey traced decades of research that deepened understanding of skin biology that began since he first entered the field of dermatology in 1978.