If I do a simple search for 'prion' in YAHOO, here's what I get:
Health: Diseases and Conditions: Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)

Health: Medicine: Neurosciences: Institutes

Regional: Countries: United Kingdom: Health: Diseases and Conditions: Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)

Regional: Countries: Italy: Regions: Emilia-Romagna: Provinces: Bologna: Ci ties: Bologna: Education: Universities: Universit` di Bologna: Departments and Programs

?Why so few? has to do with how links get into YAHOO and what YAHOO indexes: links can be contributed, and they are URLs for sites which have been entered into YAHOO's classification hierarchies, and not evidence of the occurrence of the word or phrase in documents. AltaVista items, on the other hand, point to documents, rather than sites. Thus, each has strengths and weaknesses, and neither substitutes for the other.