(CNN)-- Mad cow disease, SARS and now swine flu: Some diseases grab the headlines. But thousands of people worldwide suffer from very rare conditions, many of which few people have ever heard of.

Tuberculosis, an infectious bacterial disease, killed an estimated 1.3 million in 2012. These are some of the infectious diseases that most concern health officials today. The World Health ...

Some specific types of therapeutic vaccines include: The number of diseases researchers hope to treat with therapeutic vaccines is enormous. "Someday, we might make vaccines for Alzheimer's ...

Some fungal diseases in humans no longer respond to medicines, which increases the risk of severe illness and death as well disease spread, according to a new report. (Rebecca Conway/Getty Images ...

Some diseases, such as measles, can be severe if they occur, which is why experts recommend vaccination. If a person has the measles vaccine, they are unlikely to get the disease. If an ...

While epigenetic changes are required for normal development and health, they can also be responsible for some disease states. Disrupting any of the three systems that contribute to epigenetic ...

Q: Give us a new way to look at disease organisms. A: Some people think that disease organisms are out to get us -- any false move and we'll be damaged or even killed by them. Other people think ...

and demographics – it is an equal-opportunity disease. It can be an acute or chronic illness, often resulting in debilitating symptoms and an ongoing fear of death. Some are inevitably fatal; some are ...