Alzheimer's Soars, Global Focus Nee...(s the personal tragedy of dementia and t...),Health

"This study shows that aging populations, which were once only the problem of the developed countries like the United States, Japan and Europe, are also rapidly rising in Asia and Latin America," Cole said. "It calls for efforts to find new treatments to care for the tens of millions of new victims in the developing countries and to help their overburdened caregivers."

A worldwide effort is needed to cope with the increase in dementia, Cole said.

"What the world needs is prevention, but new drugs will necessarily be focused on treatment of diagnosed disease," Cole said. "It takes many years to develop and test prevention methods so we have to act now. We can only hope that there are governments that are not too short-sighted or cognitively-impaired to generate the political will to make primary prevention happen."

More information

For more information on Alzheimer's disease, visit the Alzheimer's Association.

SOURCES: Daisy Acosta, M.D., chair, Alzheimer's Disease International; Harry Johns, CEO, Alzheimer's Association; Greg M. Cole, Ph.D., neuroscientist, Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System, and associate director, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine; Sept. 21, 2009, 2009 World Alzheimer Report