New dementia sufferer every three seconds as treatment costs to hit €1tn

Every three seconds someone in the world develops dementia, with a global report warning the annual cost of the disease will top €1 trillion by 2018.

Experts believe they underestimated the current and future scale of the dementia epidemic by 12%-13% in the 2009 World Alzheimer Report, with costs growing more rapidly than the numbers of people affected.

To put it into perspective, the huge worldwide cost of dementia means that if it were a country it would be the world’s 18th largest economy — more than the market value of companies such as Google and Apple.

Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) recommends that at least 1% of the overall global cost of dementia should be spent on research and is calling for more investment in care and research to tackle the problem.

The average annual cost per person with dementia in Ireland is estimated at €40,500, with the economic cost of the illness estimated at €1.7bn in 2010.

The World Alzheimer Report 2015 said western Europe has the second largest population of people living with dementia after Asia, with 7.4m people thought to have the disease. It is expected that by 2050, nearly half of all people with dementia will live in Asia.

It estimated there are currently 46.8m people living with dementia around the world — more than the population of Spain.

Numbers are projected to nearly double every 20 years, increasing to 74.7m by 2030 and 131.5m by 2050. It said there are more than 9.9m new cases of dementia each year worldwide — the equivalent of one every three seconds.

Forecasts for Ireland predict the population of people with dementia, of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form, will increase from an estimated 48,000 at present to 140,000 by 2041 — a 240% hike of the 2006 figure of 41,447. Next year alone, some 4,000 people will develop dementia.

ADI chief executive Marc Wortmann said: “The rising global cost of dementia will pose serious challenges to health and social care systems all around the world. These findings demonstrate the urgent need for governments to implement policies and legislation to provide a better quality of life for people living with dementia, both now and in the future.”

The Alzheimer Society of Ireland says estimated projected dementia rates is not “a target we want to reach”.

Tina Leonard, head of advocacy and public affairs at the Alzheimer Society, said one of the first steps in the fight against dementia in Ireland would be to create a national register of people who have the disease.

She added: “Prevention and health promotion policy has to start to include dementia. With the publication of Ireland’s first National Dementia Strategy last year, it is important to further expand our understanding of modifiable risk factors and move toward identifying and testing interventions to reduce dementia risk in Ireland.”