📣 For more lifestyle news, click here to join our WhatsApp Channel and also follow us on Instagram
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Alzheimers and other dementias are exacting a massive toll on the global economy,with the problem set to accelerate in coming years and India will be one of the countries that will bear the brunt of this degenerative disease,finds a landmark report on the Global Economic Impact of Dementia.
The Report t issued on World Alzheimers Day by Alzheimers Disease International (ADI) in association with Alzheimers & Related Disorders Society of India,provides the most current and comprehensive global picture of the economic and social costs of the incurable age-related illness.
The report was jointly authored by Anders Wimo of the Karolinska Institutet,Stockholm,Sweden; and Martin Prince,Institute of Psychiatry,Kings College,London,UK.
The report was released simultaneously in New Delhi,New York and London on the occasion of World Alzheimers Day. In India the landmark report was released by Union Minster of Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Mukul Wasnik during the concluding session of 2-day-long National Dementia Summit. More than three hundred distinguished delegates from across the country.
This is a wake-up call that Alzheimers and other dementias are the single most significant health and social crisis of the 21st century, said Marc Wortmann,Executive Director of Alzheimers Disease International (ADI). World governments are woefully unprepared for the social and economic disruptions this disease will cause.
The report reveals:
*The worldwide costs of dementia will exceed 1% of global GDP in 2010,at US$604 billion.
*If dementia care were a country,it would be the worlds 18th largest economy. If it were a company,it would be the worlds largest by annual revenue exceeding Wal-Mart (US$414 billion) and Exxon Mobil (US$311 billion)
*The number of people with dementia will double by 2030,and more than triple by 2050.
The report combines the must current prevalence data from the World Alzheimer Report 2009 with improved data on low and middle-income countries from the 10/66 Dementia Research Group studies in Latin America,India and China. The report uses representative population-based samples from developing countries to better quantify the cost of informal care systems that have previously been excluded from impact estimates.
