Cape Town - Experts have predicted a sharp increase in dementia cases on the African continent in the coming decades, and singled out HIV and rising life expectancy as contributing factors.
According to the World Alzheimer Report 2015, it is estimated that 46.8 million people worldwide are living with dementia. It is estimated that this number will almost double every 20 years, reaching 74.7 million in 2030 and 131.5 million in 2050.
About 70 percent of those people will be from low and middle-income countries.
Dementia symptoms include the sudden or gradual decline in the ability to remember recent events, poorer ability to make complex decisions and plans or keep track of finances. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia.
Senior lecturer in clinical neurosciences at UCT, Celeste de Jager, said while high-income countries such as the UK and the Netherlands had managed to stabilise their incidence of dementia by changing the way they approached mental and physical health in early to mid-life – by modifying diets, smoking and depression, among other factors – Africa was likely to see a rise in dementia over the next decades.
“This is for two reasons: its ageing population, an increase in non-communicable diseases and the effects of the HIV pandemic,” she said.
De Jager said HIV was associated with cognitive decline, leading to HIV-associated dementia. About 10 percent of people receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy have this dementia, with an annual increase of one percent.
“Another 20 to 30 percent are diagnosed with the less severe forms of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder. HIV-associated dementia affects younger adults, but there may be an increase in older HIV/Aids survivors on highly active antiretrovirals. Older adults may be at risk of both HIV-associated dementia and dementia disorders such as Alzheimer’s or vascular disease,” she said.
In collaborative studies with Dementia SA, De Jager said medical students assessed knowledge, awareness and beliefs about dementia in Khayelitsha. “Our study showed there is low awareness and knowledge about dementia among urban Xhosa-speaking people. Although most people surveyed were tolerant towards people with dementia, nearly one in five knew of an older person who had been abused because of dementia. Abuse included being locked in the house, stolen from, starved, verbally and physically abused, neglected and raped,” she said.
Dementia SA director Karen Borochowitz said the global epidemic was incurable, but much could be done to ensure sufferers were cared for appropriately. It was also essential that services for proper diagnosis were easily available as there were over 100 different types of dementia. The worldwide cost of dementia had increased from $604-billion (R8.4-trillion) in 2010 to $818bn in 2015.
lisa.isaacs@inl.co.za
@lisa_isaacs
Cape Times