It’s still around, but unusual diseases/disorders like that seem to go into and out of vogue with regard to public and media attention to them. Medicine is a lot better at managing a wide range of medical conditions than it was 40 years ago, and I think that once medical treatment progresses for a disorder is “potentially deadly” to simply being “a chronic pain in the ass” people that have it stop mentioning it, and the media gets bored with it... at least until some vapid celebrity has the disease/condition, then suddenly it’s everywhere again.
Oh, and I should note that public perception and media attention aren’t always accurate either. I have narcolepsy, I was diagnosed about a year and a half ago, I’ve likely had it since I was a teenager (20+ years), but based on all the media exposure it received during the ‘90s (usually in stupid comedies and daytime talk shows, which I don’t expect a lot of freepers to expose themselves to), I would never have guessed that I have it because I thought it was all about people falling asleep at random moments. Usually in ‘90s comedies these people would appear full of energy one moment, and fall asleep in mid conversation, or in a bowl of spaghetti or something like that the very next moment. But in the real world, It’s really about being miserably tired all the time because you don’t really get any rest even when you are asleep. Only a small percentage of narcoleptics (appear to) randomly fall asleep, and even then, they weren’t exactly bouncing off the walls moments before.
What you say is true about certain diseases. There may be a flurry of attention about it for a while, then the wave subsides, when the disease can be controlled to some degree.
Aids is like that now. Diabetes too.
I was never diagnosed with narcolepsy, but probably had it.
The symptoms were not treated directly until I got help for asthma. I’m surprised I wasn’t fired back then for dozing off on the job. At that time, I was a teacher’s aide disabled students. To be honest, some of the classes were so boring I had to fight to stay awake.