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A Reminder: Special Alzheimer’s Session Took Place at Today's World Health Organization Event Published on May 20, 2016
Mike Splaine
Principal at Splaine Consulting
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May 23, 2016: A special new event alerting world leaders to dementia issues is being held in Geneva, Switzerland. “Ministerial Panel on Dementia” is included in opening day of the 69th annual WHA, the Health Administrative division and “supreme decision-making body” of the World Health Organization (WHO). “In our role as public policy advisors to Alzheimer’s Disease International, we’re always excited about getting dementia recognized on the world stage” says Michael Splaine, President of Splaine Consulting. WHO’s briefing notes that the latest report from Alzheimer's Disease International indicates, "The global cost of dementia is estimated today to be US $ 818 billion. The cost of caring for people with dementia worldwide could reach US $ 1 trillion in 2018.” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), is one of a select number of health leaders attending this event. “Today in the United States, Alzheimer’s is our sixth-leading cause of death. That’s why the United States is committed to confronting dementia, and reducing the burden on patients and their families,” she says. “By pushing forward the frontiers of research, by giving patients and caregivers the support they need, and with the WHO’s leadership of the Global Action Against Dementia, we can lift this burden of dementia from families across all of our nations,” Burwell adds. Splaine concludes, “We’re happy to see WHO take another step forward on a disease already affecting 50 million people worldwide.” For more information on the complete WHA event: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/2016/wha69/en/