One in three people born in the UK this year will suffer from some form of dementia in their lifetime, the Alzheimer’s Research UK charity has warned.
The figures, released by the charity on World Alzheimer’s Day, suggest the condition will affect 27% of boys born in 2015 and 37% of girls.
With no treatment to stop or slow dementia, the charity has warned of a “looming national health crisis” as the population ages, and is renewing its call for more urgent action to tackle the illness.
Dr Matthew Norton, head of policy at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “These figures underline a stark reality: as people are living longer, more and more people will develop dementia in the future if action is not taken now, skynews.com reported.
“Dementia is our greatest medical challenge and if we are to beat it, we must invest in research to find new treatments and preventions.”
Dementia affects 850,000 people in the UK and is caused by brain diseases, most commonly Alzheimer’s, which result in the loss of brain cells and impair the brain’s ability to function properly.
Alzheimer’s Research UK claims that if a drug could be developed to delay the onset of dementia by five years, the number of people living with the condition would be reduced by a third.
There are currently 46.8 million people worldwide living with dementia, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International, and this number is expected to increase to 131.5 million by 2050 - particularly in developing countries.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting around 5.3 million people in the US alone. Echoing increasing dementia rates around the globe, the number of people with Alzheimer’s in the US is expected to almost triple to 15.8 million by 2050.
