'Alzheimer's set to surge'
2005-12-16 23:42
Paris - Global population growth, greater longevity and changing lifestyles in developing countries point to an explosion in incidence of Alzheimer's disease in the coming decades, according to a paper published on Saturday.
Twenty-four million people today have dementia, a disease linked to old age and cardiovascular disease, and the figure will rise to 42 million by 2020 and 81 million by 2040, it says.
The biggest increases will be in China and South Asia, where numbers with Alzheimer's will triple by 2040.
The study, which appears in The Lancet, the British medical weekly, is authored by experts at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London.
They call on governments to start planning now on how to tackle the looming crisis.
Countries can allocate resources to combating smoking, type-2 diabetes and high cholesterol levels, which are risk factors for cardiovascular problems, they add.