Alzheimer’s is neurodegenerative disease and can be characterized by progressive mental deterioration together with declining activities of day to day living and behavioral changes. At present all over the world, 26 million people are suffering with this dreaded disease and it is expected that by 2050 this number will go up four times with maximum increase in Asia.
Elan Pharmaceuticals and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals funded the project for Alzheimer’s that was carried out by Johns Hopkins University, U.S to know the present trends of the disease and an increase in number of cases in future.
The facts of the study caried out by Johns Hopkins University show that the number four times means that in 2050, one in 85 people will have the brain-destroying disease in 40 years.
Therefore it means that Alzheimer is looming like a global dementia epidemic with the graying of the world’s population. As a matter of fact a huge toll will be there if scientists are unable to find better ways to battle Alzheimer’s and protect aging brains.
Johns Hopkins public health specialist Ron Brookmeyer said:
If we can make even modest advances in preventing Alzheimer’s disease, or delay its progression, we could have a huge global public health impact.
The study also projected that at present, Asia is home to half of today’s Alzheimer’s cases that is 12.6 million and it will have 62.8 million of the world’s 106 million Alzheimer’s patients by 2050.
The Alzheimer’s toll in America is expected to reach 16 million by 2050 as compared with more than 5 million today. This estimate is significantly lower, suggesting only 3.1 million North American cases today and 8.8 million by 2050.
Estimates for other regions are:
– Africa, 1.3 million today and 6.3 million in 2050.
– Europe, 7.2 million and 16.5 million.
– Latin America and the Caribbean, 2 million and 10.8 million.
– Oceania, 200,00 and 800,000.
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Source: Foxnews