The G8 summit on dementia in London yesterday (December 11) has raised hopes that more focus on dementia and more funding will lead to a leap forward in dementia treatment.
David Cameron, who attended the summit, announced increased funding in the UK to fight the disease and spoke of his hopes for a “cure”.
The Prime Minister invited health chiefs from the world’s richest countries to the UK to discuss what to do about dementia, with the number of sufferers predicted to treble to 135 million globally by 2050.
At the summit he announced that GlaxoSmithKline will be investing a further £200m in UK life sciences and that the Medical Research Council will spend £150m more on clinical infrastructure for dementia and genomics.
He also said a scan that can rule out Alzheimer’s will be available on the NHS from now on. The first patient is due to undergo a scan today (December 12) in London’s Charing Cross Hospital, part of Imperial College NHS Trust.
Mr Cameron said, “It doesn’t matter whether you’re in London or Los Angeles, in rural India or in urban Japan: this disease steals lives, it wrecks families, it breaks hearts.
“And that is why all of us here are so utterly determined to beat it.”
Read more about the G8 dementia summit
Dementia research funding to be doubled by 2015 – The Guardian
Charity’s call for dementia research funding to be on same footing as cancer – The Guardian
Alzheimer’s research
Alzheimer’s Disease International – The global impact of dementia study