Scientists who study Alzheimer's disease say they are on the brink of finding treatments to slow or stop it.
Projections are that by 2050, 16 million Americans will have the disease. Already 4.5 million do. Caring for people with Alzheimer's costs at least $100 billion each year.
As the older population - fueled by baby boomers - doubles over the next 25 years, Alzheimer's could become the country's most costly disease.
Within five years of a treatment that would delay the onset of Alzheimer's, "the potential annual savings are $50 billion in Medicare and $10 billion in Medicaid," according to Steve McConnell. He is vice president of advocacy and public policy at the Alzheimer's Association in Chicago.
A few weeks ago, Congress voted to reduce funding for research on Alzheimer's disease.
"We spend $100 billion a year on a disease no one in his right mind would want, but fight that with only $650 million and declining," said Dr. David A. Bennett, director of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. "It just makes no sense."
People who are worried about getting Alzheimer's shouldn't run to their doctors, they should write their congressmen, Bennett said.
Pam Rwankole, public relations manager for the Alzheimer's Association, said that "The good news is that federal funds for care and support programs are OK."
The Lasker Foundation rated the disease the third most costly in the nation, behind heart disease and cancer.
"It's a disease of the century and could bankrupt our society if we don't find a way to stop it," said McConnell, of the Alzheimer's Association. "There's been enormous progress in disease modifying treatments, but with the funding cut we slow the day we get an intervention."
Scientists who study Alzheimer's say they are close to finding a treatment.
"The data are turning out better than we ever anticipated," said Anne Fagan Niven, professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine.
"The real kicker is that we think that Alzheimer's disease pathology begins approximately 10 to 20 years before symptoms," Niven said. "Once you see the symptoms, many neurons have already died. In order to best preserve normal brain function, you want to treat before symptoms start."
| • | Funding for Alzheimer's research is key, scientists say
Kansas City Star, Tuesday, July 4, 2006 Byline: Molly McElroy, St. Louis Post-Dispatch |
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