A professor of population health and medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, United States of America, Gbenga Ogedegbe, has said that it costs about two million dollars to treat Dementia disease annually.
Ogedegbe said this at a lecture organized by the Gabi-Williams Alzheimer’s Foundation to mark World Alzheimer’s Day, which is slated to hold on September 21.
At the lecture themed, “How to reduce the risk of Dementia”, he described Alzheimer’s 
disease as a dangerous disease that affects the brain, disrupts the patient’s cognitive function, causes the progressive death of brain cells and heavily inflicting memory loss on the patients.
“Although there is no definite cure yet for Alzheimer’s disease, but scientific evidence indicates that the risk of the disease can be reduced by regular exercise, eating healthy foods, fruits and vegetables, as well as staying socially active and regularly getting a good night sleep,” Ogedegbe said.
Expressing his concern on the increased prevalence of dementia in Nigeria and its huge burden to patients, caregivers and the health care system, he said, “Dementia is a rapidly growing public health problem affecting around 50 million people globally.”
“Nearly 10 million new cases of the disease are being diagnosed every year. The disease has been identified as a major cause of disability and dependency among older people. It has become a severe economic burden on societies as a whole with the cost of caring for people with dementia estimated to rise to two trillion dollars annually,” he added.
