India has about 45 lakh people suffering from Dementia, a disorder of the brain affecting memory and language skills of the elderly people.
Illiteracy in the country prevents proper diagnosis of this medical condition and the associated stigma only makes it an impediment for care of such elderly people, said Dr Manjari Tripathi from the department of Neurology at AIIMS and President, (Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Society of India) ARDSI-Delhi Chapter.
Alzheimers Disease is the most common type of dementia and about 5-6 per cent of the people in the age group of 65-70 years in India suffer from this problem.
"Sadly, there is no cure for dementia right now. With no or very little social security available to people in India and with families getting more and more nuclear, care is hard to come by for the elderly," said Tripathi.
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The elderly population in India stood at nine crore as per 2011 census and is expected to double in the next 20 years, making India number one in terms of old age population in the world.
"There can be institutional care set up in the country. The CSR activities of the corporates right now mostly focus on women and children but what about the old age population? he said.
Degenerative diseases of the brain cannot be reversed. However, with some of the measures like symptomatic treatment and effective intervention, it is somewhat possible to delay the progress of the disease.
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