WHO Launches Blueprint To Tackle Dementia
On Tuesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO), unveiled the first-ever research blueprint for tackling dementia, which 78 million people could be living with by the end of this decade.
According to the UN health agency, dementia is one of the greatest health challenges of our generation.
“Although dementia is the seventh leading cause of death globally, dementia research accounts for less than 1.5 percent of total health research output,” WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan, said in a statement.
“Sadly, we are falling behind implementing the Global action plan on the public health response to dementia 2017-25,” she said, adding that addressing this health challenge comprehensively requires “research and innovation to be an integral part of the response”.
Read Also:
Strategies are needed to better understand, prevent, and treat the underlying diseases that cause it and, at the same time, provide care and support to people who suffer from it, as well as those who care for them.
Read Also: People with dementia are not witches – Group
Research needs to be conducted within an enabling environment, where collaborations are fostered, and equitable and sustained investment is realised, the UN health agency maintained.
Those are the objectives behind WHO’s new blueprint for dementia research, the first WHO initiative of its kind for non-communicable diseases.
It’s designed to provide guidance to policymakers, funders, and the research community on this disease, making it more efficient, equitable, and impactful.
WHO is encouraging national and international research agencies, together with financing bodies, to use the blueprint to inform upcoming funding and operationalise research.
At the same time, civil societies should ensure that their advocacy efforts are also aligned and support a more equitable, efficient, and collaborative research landscape.
