Cameron vows treatment for dementia is ‘within our grasp’

Health ministers committed to developing an effective therapy by 2025 and pledged to “collectively and significantly” increase funding for research as they met in London for the first G8 summit on the disease yesterday.

Announcing plans to double the UK’s investment in dementia research to £122m, David Cameron told the gathered politicians, scientists and campaigners: “We meet with the conviction that human ingenuity can overcome the most daunting of challenges and we meet with the determination that we will take the fight to dementia and improve and save millions of lives.”

And he added: “The aim of trying to find a cure or disease-halting therapy by 2025 by a big collective boost to research funding is within our grasp.”

The number of dementia sufferers is expected to almost double worldwide every two decades according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said a failure to “turn the global tide” against dementia risked bankrupting nations’ healthcare systems as their populations age.

The condition currently costs the UK economy an estimated £23bn a year, with the global figure put at around £366bn.

“But the real reason to do something about dementia is not financial,” Mr Hunt added.

“The real reason is human. Everyone deserves to live their final years with dignity, respect and the support of loved ones.”

Mr Hunt said he hoped the dementia summit would have the same effect as the G8 summit in Gleneagles on HIV and Aids in 2005.

“We thought we could never combat HIV. But just nine years after the Gleneagles summit and with the involvement of some of Britain’s best universities, we are talking about a potential vaccine,” he said. “We need that spirit of scientific endeavour for dementia and Alzheimer’s as well.”

Mr Hunt was joined by health ministers from France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the US, Canada and Japan in signing a 12-point declaration setting out their commitment to tackling the “global challenge”.

A “co-ordinated international research action plan” is to be developed which will highlight gaps and opportunities in research.

And nations pledged to work more closely in the field, pooling their knowledge and sharing their findings

The G8 will report back every two years on their progress with the next summit to be held in the US in February 2015.

Mr Hunt also called for an end to the stigma around the disease and praised the “real courage and bravery” of the dementia sufferers who attended the summit – including Alzheimer’s Society campaigner Trevor Jarvis, 72, from Doncaster.

The charity – which the Yorkshire Post is supporting through this year’s Christmas appeal – hailed the “global leadership” the UK had shown on the issue as it pledged £100m of its own towards dementia research over the next decade.

Chief executive Jeremy Hughes said: “Dementia has come out of the shadows and is centre stage – but we must ensure G8 has a lasting legacy.

“The governments have all committed to updating progress on research biannually, but every month counts for the millions of people living with dementia worldwide.”

To find out how you can help the Alzheimer’s Society support some of the 58,000 people living with dementia across Yorkshire, visit www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/appeal.

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