An Alzheimer's Disease International report said that if the costs of caring for an estimated 35.6 million people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias were seen as a country, it would be the world's 18th largest economy. -- PHOTO: TTSHLONDON/CHICAGO - THE worldwide costs of dementia will reach US$604 billion (S$805 billion) in 2010, more than one per cent of global GDP output, and those costs will soar as the number of sufferers triples by 2050, according to a report on Tuesday.
To show the scale of the problem, an Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) report said that if the costs of caring for an estimated 35.6 million people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias were seen as a country, it would be the world's 18th largest economy, ranking between Turkey and Indonesia.
'World governments are woefully unprepared for the social and economic disruptions this disease will cause,' said Daisy Acosta, ADI's chairman, describing dementia as 'the single most significant health and social crisis of the 21st century'.
The report, jointly authored by Martin Prince of Britain's King's College London Institute of Psychiatry and Anders Wimo of Sweden's Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, combined the most up-to-date global data on dementia prevalence with added research from care studies in Latin America, India and China.
Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, a fatal brain-wasting disease that affects memory, thinking, behavior and the ability to handle daily activities.
'Alzheimer's is not normal ageing. It is not just a little memory loss. It is a progressive, degenerative disease... with the high risk factor being age. As that unfolds, we're going to see dramatic increases in Alzheimer's,' Harry Johns, president of the Chicago-based Alzheimer's Association (AA), said in a telephone interview. -- REUTERS
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