The Assembly is the annual meeting of all 193 member countries of the World Health Organization.
The Alliance is being launched by Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), Alzheimer’s Society (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and the Department of Health in England.
The three partners aim to foster global collaboration among international NGOs, professional associations, governments and international statutory bodies in an effort to coordinate actions and raise awareness about Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
The formation of the alliance follows the G8 Summit on Dementia, held in London last December, which called for increased funding for research, improvement of dementia care and change of the societal attitude towards these diseases.
Worldwide, 44 million people have dementia, with almost two thirds living in low- and middle-income countries. Every year, there are 7.7 million new cases. The global cost of dementia was calculated at US$604 billion in the year 2010, which represents 1% of global GDP.
Marc Wortmann, Executive Director of Alzheimer’s Disease International, commented: “The Global Alzheimer’s and Dementia Action Alliance will be the first global body to bring together government, the health and social care sector, non-profit organisations and the wider civil society to tackle the challenge of dementia. This builds on the Declaration from the G8 dementia summit in 2013, which set out clearly that in order to achieve the summit’s objectives we have to “call upon civil society to continue to enhance global efforts to reduce stigma, exclusion and fear”.”
UK Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt added: “The Global Dementia and Alzheimer’s Action Alliance is an example of the commitment people and organisations across the world are making to share their ideas and experiences to help support people with dementia and their carers to live independently in their communities for longer.”
Leave a Reply