Dementia research funding to be doubled by 2025

Posted under Blog on December 12th, 2013 by Editorial Team / No Comments

British Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to double funding for dementia research from £66m to £122m in 2025.

Speaking at the G8 Dementia Summit in London, Mr Cameron pledged to lead a “global fight back” against dementia, describing it as a disease that “steals lives” and “wrecks families”.

Speaking at the summit, he said: “If we are to beat dementia, we must also work globally, with nations, business and scientists from all over the world working together as we did with cancer, and with HIV and AIDS.” 

Mr Cameron also announced that a new brain scan that can help confirm or rule out Alzheimer’s disease is to be made available on the National Health Service (NHS) for the first time.

The new scan will allow doctors to definitively rule out the disease – the most common form of dementia – or the chance that it will develop within five years. It will also improve the ability of doctors to diagnose the disease.

Dr Richard Perry, a consultant neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust, said: "For people who have memory problems and who are concerned about them, knowing the cause, whether it is Alzheimer's disease or not, is the first step in getting the right sort of treatment."

Alzheimer’s disease affects around 500,000 in the UK. It’s thought that just 45% of sufferers currently have a diagnosis. The number of cases is predicted to treble to 135 million globally by 2050.

Tags: Alzheimer's, G8 Summit, Imperial College Healthcare, NHS

 

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