That makes for one heart attack every 29 seconds in this country. This year, more than 1 million Americans will have a heart attack, and about one-third of them will die. Hepatitis C has always been overshadowed by the AIDS virus, but it too can be deadly. Scientists now call hepatitis C a major public health problem, even though most Americans have never heard of it. New drugs have helped patients live longer and researchers are working on a vaccine, but so far a cure still seems out of reach.
Lung cancer kills more people than any other type of cancer.
It has even surpassed breast cancer as a killer of women. Roughly 157,400 Americans died of lung tumors in 1995, while 169,900 new cases were diagnosed that year. More than 23 million Americans suffer from migraines. If you're one of them, you know it's no ordinary headache. Other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer among American men.