Opinion: Taking steps to defuse the time bomb

As we enter the first month of 2014, many people’s thoughts will turn naturally to what the new year might hold. Some will face the future with excitement, but for others the prospect of declining health will cast a pall of gloom.

Medical advances have enabled many people to enjoy a good quality of life for decades after retirement, as many diseases cease to be regarded as a death sentence. Ironically, though, a longer lifespan means that people are also developing diseases in old age that might not have been predicted a generation ago.

According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, the number of cases of dementia is set to treble by 2050 to 135 million, yet the spending on research into the disease – in the UK at least – is less than an eighth of that going into cancer research.

And while the developed economies at present account for almost 40% of cases, improving health and increasing lifespans among the populations of Africa and Asia will cause this balance to undergo a massive shift, so that by 2050 more than 70% of Alzheimer’s patients will be in poor and middle income countries.

Last month the G8 countries held a dementia summit at which they pledged to increase funding significantly and committed to developing a cure or treatment by 2025. The G8 said it would ‘develop a co-ordinated international research action plan’ to target the gaps in research and ways to address them.

Until recently dementia tended to be viewed as an inevitable part of growing old and has been treated as a poor relation in terms of disease research funding. And it will be the poorest countries that end up bearing the greatest burden.

To find a cure within the next decade or so is a massive target, but any significant degree of progress in developing a treatment will be welcome.

Dementia may be a disease of old age, but the effects go far beyond the patient. Anything that can defuse the time bomb or reduce its effects is worth striving for.