Dementia should be made a top health priority on a par with cancer and lung disease, a leading expert has said, after it has become the next global time bomb.
Professor Peter Piot, former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, compared dementia to the AIDs epidemic and said one person is diagnosed with the mental illness every seven seconds.
The population of sufferers, which currently stands at 36 million, is set to double by 2020 worldwide.
Research and treatment of dementia is top priority
He is now calling on the World Health Organisation to add dementia to their list of top priority diseases to fund research and treatment across the globe.
He said: “It’s not adding years to your life, but life to your years.”
Despite his calls to improve diagnosis, Prof Piot admitted it may not always be ethical to diagnose the condition, in parts of the world where treatment is not yet available.
He told BBC Radio4’s Today programme that developing countries in Asia and Latin America were seeing the greatest rise in dementia sufferers, as better healthcare led to people living longer.
Raed the article on The Telegraph |
