Rare Diseases

The rarest infectious diseases can have the most severe consequences and collectively comprise a significant global health burden. Some of the most important include Ebola virus, Chikungunya virus, lassa fever, amoebic meningitis, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, burkholderia infection, Chagas disease, coccidioidomycosis, Cryptococcus gattiihrlichiosis, histoplasmosis, monkeypox, paragonimiasis, prion disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus disease (SARS), smallpox, tickborne rickettsioses, tick paralysis, typhus and viral haemorrhagic fevers. Many challenges exist in this field, particularly the increasing emergence of multidrug resistant pathogens. A better understanding of the role of host immunity in disease outcomes is needed to advance precision medicine.