WashU Medicine has joined forces with over 25 million Americans living with a rare disease and health care advocates around the world to celebrate Rare Disease Day®. Hosted on February 28, Rare Disease Day is an annual awareness day dedicated to elevating public understanding of rare diseases and calling attention to the special challenges people face.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a disease is rare if it affects less than 200,000 people in the United States. Over 25 million Americans live with a rare disease—and nearly half of these patients are children. For the over 7,000 known rare diseases, 90% are still without FDA-approved treatments.
Rare Disease Day is marked globally every year on the last day of February—the rarest date on the calendar—to underscore the nature of rare diseases and the challenges patients face. Rare Disease Day is sponsored in the United States by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD®), the leading independent, nonprofit organization committed to the identification, treatment, and cure of rare diseases.









As a NORD Center of Excellence, Rare Diseases Day is part of WashU Medicine’s commitment to progressing care of rare diseases, encourage collaboration as well as sharing of best practices and expertise.
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