This means that Hairy cell leukemia, or a subtype of Hairy cell leukemia, affects less than 200,000 people in the US population. Ophanet, a consortium of European partners, currently defines a condition rare when it affects 1 person per 2,000. They list Hairy cell leukemia as a rare disease.
In fact, some of the oldest alphabetic symbols have been found in Central America (2,500 years ago), China (more than 3,000 years ago), and the Middle East (more than 5,000 years ago). One of the earliest forms of the alphabet was hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics were single symbols that stood for entire words.
(Read the article on one page) A Dutch Egyptologist recently deciphered the oldest known abecedary or alphabet-like primer on a 3,500-year-old shard of pottery from an Egyptian tomb excavated 20 years ago. The earliest alphabets go back to the 19 th century BC.