Health professionals and entities related to Alzheimer’s disease have demanded in the Congress of Deputies a greater political commitment that translates into an increase in the allocation of research resources to improve access to early diagnosis
The speakers at the Conference “Early detection and early diagnosis. New paradigms in Alzheimer’s disease”, held at the Congress of Deputies/Courtesy photo
The conference ‘Early detection and early diagnosis. New paradigms in Alzheimer’s disease’, has urged the establishment of biomedical research, key in detecting possible symptoms when there is still no brain damage, as a political priority to achieve a comprehensive approach to the pathology.
At the opening of the event, organized by the Spanish Alzheimer’s Confederation (CEAFA) in collaboration with Biogen, the president of the Health and Consumption Commission, Rosa María Romero, opened “the doors of Congress” to a series of “awareness” days of a disease that affects more than a million people in Spain, according to their estimates.
The president has determined that an early diagnosis means “better understanding of Alzheimer’s disease in its early stages” and has described research as the “great challenge for Spain” regarding the provision of resources and support for these professionals.
Along these lines, the medical director of the Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Mercè Boada, has stated that early detection is necessary to “establish a life plan for the patient”, since their ability to reverse the process is “less and worse” without detecting the first symptoms.
Currently, 40% of the patients who arrive at the Barcelona entity have mild or very mild cognitive impairment, while thirty years ago, all the patients showed very advanced symptoms of this disease.
For this reason, Boada believes that Spain must increase its efforts both in financing science and in attracting talent in a scenario in which national research is “very small” and will cause us to “be left behind”.
More budget allocation for Alzheimer’s
The speakers also demanded a greater budget allocation for the ‘Comprehensive Plan for Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias 2019-2023’ with which to guarantee the quality of life of those diagnosed and their families.
“What we are requesting is that the plan be financially endowed in an adequate way, that it not go in the General State Budgets as an item within other sub-items, but that it have the entity it deserves,” he claimed, in statements to Efe , the president of CEAFAMarilo Almagro.
The adequate economic resources for the care of a patient are, in his opinion, “very high” and account for up to 3% of the GDP of Spain, according to a study by the center.
From the Ministry of Health they report that the budget allocated to this strategy, through the distribution of funds to the autonomous communities, was 1,409,035 euros in 2021.
Although there are still “unmet” needs in the community, the director general of biogene in Spain, Sérgio Teixeira, points to a favorable environment for collaboration between all the agents of the health system so that the management of the pathology is as “sustained and agile” as possible.
Globally, each year 10 million new patients are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, responsible for 60% of diagnosed cases of dementia and, according to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), these figures will triple to reach 139 million cases in the year 2050.
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