Dec. 5 (UPI) -- New estimates suggest that the number of people with dementia is set to triple by 2050, higher than previous estimates, and the rise is expected to put pressure on already stretched health services.
A policy brief released Wednesday by Alzheimer's Disease International, a federation of advocacy and research organizations, estimated that 135 million people will be living with dementia by 2050. At present nearly 44 million people are living with the health condition, far more than the 2010 estimate of 35 million, and that figure is expected to rise to 76 million by 2030.
"It's a global epidemic and it is only getting worse -- if we look into the future the numbers of elderly people will rise dramatically," said Marc Wortmann, executive director at Alzheimer Disease International.
Currently, 38 percent of the cases are in rich countries, but the report expects a surge in dementia patients from South East Asia and Africa, and by 2050 close to 71 percent of these patients will be from low- and middle-income countries.
The report, released ahead of the G8 Dementia Summit in London, said that most governments are "woefully unprepared for the dementia epidemic" and need to revise their public health policies to factor it in.
[Alzheimer's Disease International] [BBC]
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