Government must invest in long term care and dementia research - WHO

‘Dementia: A Public Health Priority' estimates 35.6 million people worldwide have dementia, a number expected to hit 65.7 million in 2030. It calls on policy-makers to acknowledge a rapidly ageing population and threat to global health.

Dr Margaret Chan director-general of WHO said: "The need for long-term care for people with dementia strains health and social systems, and budgets.

"The catastrophic cost of care drives millions of households across the poverty line.

"The overwhelming number of people whose lives are altered by dementia, combined with the staggering economic burden on families and nations, makes dementia a public health priority."

The report recommends that programmes focus on improving early diagnosis; raising public awareness about the disease and reducing stigma; and providing better care and more support to caregivers.

Estimating current costs to health systems at US$ 604bn a year, the report recommends involving existing caregivers in designing programmes to provide better support, delaying the need for people to enter into high-cost residential care.

At the same time, health workforce training needs to pay closer attention to dementia, and the skills required to provide both clinical and long-term care.

Last month David Cameron compared the situation to that of cancer in the 70s and HIV in the 80s and 90s. He gave a Government commitment to more than double the government's financial input for funding dementia research to £66m by 2015.

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, commented: "Two weeks ago, for the first time a British Prime Minister made a personal commitment to drive forward change to transform the lives of 800,000 people with dementia in the UK.

"This is enormous progress, but it is the beginning of the road. Today the World Health Organisation is calling for the global fight against dementia to begin."