(Donald Weaver/ The Conversation) — As a researcher who studies Alzheimer’s disease and a neurologist who cares for people with Alzheimer’s, I share in the frustration, indeed anger, of people and families when I tell them that I have no cure to offer.
Over the past year, scientists have tackled COVID-19, a previously unknown disease and within months developed effective new vaccines. Over that same time frame, the list of Alzheimer’s treatment failures got longer. Currently, the only approved drugs for Alzheimer’s merely alleviate some of the symptoms — partially and temporarily — but do not stop the disease from progressing.
Although it was first officially described 115 years ago, and of course existed long before that, we still do not have a cure for this devastating disease. Why?
Let’s start by following the money. For years, patient advocates have pointed to the escalating toll and ballooning costs of Alzheimer’s as the world’s population ages. Alzheimer’s is severely underfunded in comparison to cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS and even COVID-19. (…)