29 Jun 2010
Source: Reuters
By Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG
Asia's fast-ageing population will make up more than half of the world's dementia patients in 40 years, with China shouldering the biggest chunk.
With very few skilled nursing homes, daycare facilities or plans to build many more, health experts say the region is ill-prepared to cope with the sharp increase in patients needing such specialised and intensive care.
"Asia will bear the burden because of the ageing population in China ... figures in China will be tremendous," Dr. David Dai, coordinator of the Hong Kong Alzheimer's Disease Association.
"We are not prepared. The whole of southeast Asia is not prepared," gerontologist Dai said in an interview.
More than 35 million people suffer from Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other forms of dementia, a number expected to almost double by 2030 and pass 115 million by 2050, according to Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) [ID:nN20262573].
Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, robs people of their memory and thought processes and, eventually, bodily functions.
In Asia, 13.7 million people had Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia in 2005. That is expected to grow to 23.7 million by 2020 and 64.6 million by 2050.
China alone will have 27 million sufferers by 2050 and India 16 million, according to ADI.
ONE FOR EVERY FAMILY
About 10 percent of those in their 70s can expect to have dementia, and 30 percent of those in their 80s.
"Everyone will experience this, every family. It is now common to live to your 80s," said Peter Yuen, director of the Public Policy Research Institute at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Yuen, whose mother has Alzheimer's, told a recent AD symposium in Hong Kong that four years of daycare and two years of residential care in a general nursing home in Hong Kong would cost HK$540,000 (US$69,000) per patient.
But even that is an underestimate for 82-year-old Aw Bek-sum, whose children have had to fork out HK$15,000 (US$1,920) each month to take care of her since she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's four years ago. The sum covers daycare, visits to the doctor, a domestic helper and household expenses.
"It's devastating for families with AD patients. There is just not enough support," Yuen said
He proposes long-term financing or some form of pooled insurance for patients who are chronically ill so that services will be made available once the ability to pay is assured.
Abridged
SOURCE: AlertNet.Org
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