The year 2025: goal for effective Alzheimer's treatment

The gauntlet is down. The US Health Authorities have set 2025 as the date that effective Alzheimer’s disease treatment must be found.

According to Harry Johns, president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association and member of the Advisory Council, “Alzheimer’s can’t wait and families won’t forget. For the first time ever, families grappling with this progressive, degenerative and ultimately fatal disease can have real hope that a national strategy addressing the escalating Alzheimer’s crisis is coming.”

Approximately 5.4 million people in the US live with Alzheimer’s affecting 15 million family members who care for them. The economic toll is vast with the disease costing $183 billion and projected to exceed $1 trillion by mid-century. Alzheimer’s is one of the ten leading causes of death and there is no treatment to prevent it or cure it. The progress cannot substantively be slowed.

Globally, there are 37 million people with Alzheimer’s and the number is growing. By the year 2030 some projections indicate there will be 66 million people suffering with the disease and over 115 million by the year 2050.

The plan is part of The National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) signed into law by President Obama. The law authorizes the creation of a national plan for managing the disease. The Alzheimer Advisory Council was also created by this act.

“This process is about changing the course of Alzheimer’s disease. It is about setting the path for that change right away with an aggressive timeline. Developing an urgent, achievable and accountable strategy for Alzheimer’s is about hope for millions of people today and tomorrow,” said Johns.

Source: MedicalNewsToday, Alzheimer Advisory Council

Photo: Auguste Deter in November 1901, first described patient with Alzheimer's Disease.