Prevalence and Incidence of Graft-versus-host disease
Graft-versus-host disease: Rare Disease
Graft-versus-host disease is listed as a "rare disease" by the Office of
Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH). This means that Graft-versus-host disease, or a subtype of Graft-versus-host disease,
affects less than 200,000 people in the US population.
Ophanet, who are a consortium of European partners,
currently defines a condition rare when if affects 1 person per 2,000.
They list Graft-versus-host disease as a "rare disease".
More information about Graft-versus-host disease is available from Orphanet
About prevalence and incidence statistics:
The term 'prevalence' of Graft-versus-host disease usually refers to the estimated population
of people who are managing Graft-versus-host disease at any given time.
The term 'incidence' of Graft-versus-host disease refers to the annual diagnosis rate,
or the number of new cases of Graft-versus-host disease diagnosed each year.
Hence, these two statistics types can differ:
a short-lived disease like flu can have high annual incidence but low prevalence,
but a life-long disease like diabetes has a low annual incidence but high prevalence.
For more information see about prevalence and incidence statistics.