Dementia the Global Health Bomb

A leading health expert Professor Peter Piot is calling Dementia a global health bomb, comparing the disease to the AIDS epidemic.

The misconception is that dementia is a normal part of aging and that there is nothing that can be done to slow the disease. This is not the case.

One person is diagnosed with different types of dementia every seven seconds. There are currently 36 million individuals diagnosed with dementia worldwide and this is set to double by 2020.

Professor Piot is calling for the World Health Organisation to add dementia care to their list of top priority diseases and to fund research and treatment around the world.

Prominent author Terry Pratchet who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2008 has spoken about the impact that the disease has had on his life saying.

“Every so often you realise that another little brick has fallen out of the wall. What goes, as far as I can see is not so much memory but finding the memory”.

“It is what happens to you when the memory is gone and you are relying on strangers, its just the loss of self all the time. Every now and again a piece of you dies”.

The list of diseases that are currently being given top priority by the World Health Organisation are, Cancer, Lung Disease, Diabetes and Chronic Heart Disease.