My name is Raymond Jessurun and I am Alzheimer's Disease International's (ADI) representative to WHO/PAHO. ADI is the global umbrella organisation of national Alzheimer associations worldwide, in official relations with WHO since 1996. This Sanitary Conference takes place in the middle of the first World Alzheimer's Month organized by ADI with the theme "Dementia: Living Together." This to address worldwide the stigma surrounding Dementia, to raise the awareness and advocate to make Dementia a Public Health Priority.
More than 8 million persons in this region today (worldwide 36 million) are living with dementia, roughly the same number as those living with HIV/AIDS. The largest numbers of these have Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder, which creates memory loss, confusion, disorientation to time and place, and which, when it progresses, leaves the person unable to work or care for themselves over the course of several years. Left unsolved, this number in the region will almost double by 2030 to 15 million (and worldwide to 65 million). The largest amount of that growth will occur in lower and middle income countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, with related economic hardship and challenges at the family and health care systems level.
Let me call to your attention three areas which require attention and ADI stands ready to partner with PAHO and the governments represented here today.
We are very proud to have partnered with WHO to produce in April of this year the WHO report "Dementia a Public Health Priority." This report is now in the process of being translated into each of the official WHO languages for dissemination. A key policy recommendation in this report calls for the creation of National (and sub national) Dementia Action Plans, and ADI is stand by to work with countries that wish to do so. In addition we want to ask this regional assembly to set aside time for its own learning and planning about dementia in the region, first through a workshop at PAHO headquarters to look at how dementia issues connect to ongoing work, and then a report from staff on the workshop findings to be discussed in your meeting of next year.
Secondly, we appreciate the role the region had in the realization of the "United Nation High Level Meeting Political Declaration on Non-Communicable Diseases" of last year, which called for recognition of Alzheimer's disease and dementia as a major NCD. At this moment, the World Health Organization (WHO) is drafting the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020, and are member states being consulted on a comprehensive global monitoring framework, including indicators, and a set of voluntary global targets for the prevention and control of NCDs. For very practical reasons dementia is not yet included. ADI supports the drafting of the monitoring framework, especially because of the growing consensus that dementia shares most of the same risk factors as the other NCD's. A complete paper on risk factors for Dementia is available for your consideration, but the simplest way to think about it is "What's good for the heart is good for the brain."
Thirdly, based on the recognition of Dementia and Alzheimer's in the "United Nation High Level Meeting Political Declaration on Non-Communicable Diseases we look forward to recognition of age as a driving force in NCD's and dementia issues to be addressed in the proposed NCD Strategy for 2012-2025 , as the document for this plan does not yet include even a mention of the Dementia social and health threat as major non-communicable disease in our region. As the WHO-report on Dementia urged governments to develop a National Dementia Action Plan, the NCD Strategy should call for dementia surveillance tools in the NCD country level surveillance systems. We recommend developing these by multi-sectoral all-of-society partnerships. ADI offers its partnership and support in all of the fore mentioned efforts, with its time and expertise from around the world. As we did with the WHO Global action plan on the prevention and monitoring of NCD's, we have purposed to do with PAHO's Regional Strategy for the prevention and monitoring of NCD's including Dementia. In turn, when measurement systems are complete, we urge the adoption of an outcome target for dementia: reduce the number of person's living with Alzheimer's disease or related dementia of 25% as with other NCD's or at least 10% from current projections. This strategic objective promotes and protects the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and other related human rights of this vulnerable group.
Thank you
