14 DAY TRIAL // According to a report released today, more than 35 million people around the world will suffer from some form of dementia by early 2010. Forms of the disease include such conditions as Alzheimer's, and no effective course of treatment for such afflictions exists up to this point, which makes the predictions even more worrying. The study reveals that countries with a low to average living standard are the most likely to experience sharp increases in the number of dementia cases, Reuters reports.
One of the main reasons why the neurodegenerative disorders affect more and more people in such countries is the fact that few medical institutions able to provide accurate diagnostics and early detection exist here. The new report was released by the Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI), which is an umbrella group for many Alzheimer's associations around the world. “This report and all earlier studies indicate that the current number of people living with dementia is expected to grow at an alarming rate,” the new paper says.
“An estimated 35.6 million people worldwide will be living with dementia in 2010. This number is estimated to nearly double every 20 years, to 65.7 million in 2030, and 115.4 million in 2050. Much of the increase is clearly attributable to increases in the numbers of people with dementia in low and middle income countries,” the same study adds. Dementia disorders also include vascular dementia, a disease caused by clogged blood vessels in the human brain, and that leads to cognitive impairment. “Dementia care costs are rising fast in low and middle income countries,” the authors explain.
Although medicine to keep dementia in check for a while exist, there is currently no clear treatment that can halt or reverse brain degeneration. Progressively, people suffering from the condition lose their ability to store memories, to navigate the world and to understand what is going on around them. According to a 2005 investigation, the global costs associated with treating forms of dementia amount to about $315 billion, of which $227 billion are paid by rich countries, and the rest by poor nations.