AD Article in Hindu-21!4!11, PG No-13

'Alzheimer's will be on the rise in India'
With the number of elderly people in the country expected to

be 9 crofe in the Census 2011 report, the government has to
recognise that diseases of the elderly is going to be a very
: important public health probJem in India, said Dr. K. Jacob
Roy, who was recently eJected chairman of Alzheimer's
f Disease International (AD!)!.
In an exclusive interview with Sbyama Rajagopal, Dr.
Roy, who founded the Alzheimer's and Related Disorders
Society of India (ARDS!), spoke about conditions of the
elderly in the country and specifically about Alzheimer's
disease, a complex and frightening disease that is affecting a
lot of elderly. He will take on the mantle of AD! chairman for
three years in 2012 at the organisation's London meeting.
What is this public health
problem?
In 20 years, the number of
elderly is going to double
which would make India the
country with the largest
number of elderly in the
world.
In that context, the medical
problems of a large group
would create a public health
problem in the country. Since
age is the single most risk
factor of the disease, and
when we have segment of
people over 80 growing
because of better health care
and nutrition, conditions like
Alzheimer's will also be on
the rise.
What is the extent of the
disease?
The prevalence of the disease
[in India] is said to be one in
20 for people over 60 years,
and one in 5 for people over
80 years. There are about 3.7
crore people affected by the
disease, and the cost of
:, treating the disease is pegged
at Rs.14,700 crore.
This is going to treble in the
next 20 years as the number
of affected is going to double
and become 7.6 crore.

So unless we plan now
,I there is going to be a
catastrophe. Families are
becoming nuclear... and if
someone in our family gets
dementia, who's going to take
care of the person?
How is ARDSI tackling this
problem?
ARDSI has come out with a
Dementia India report last
year - an effort of two years
by experts.
When we have to convince
the medical community, you
need to have scientific data.
The developed countries
were using their
specific report to make the
Government device policies
for supporting the elderly.
It is a scientific
authoritative report on
dementia and it contains all
the statistics you need, like
what the disease is all about,
the number of people
affected, types of dementia,
cost of care per person and
many more.
This report will be used to
influence the Governments,
both the Centre and State to
recognize dementia as a
health priority and include it
in the national agenda. If any
significant change has to
happen, the Government has
to accept it and make it a
health priority. As the
ATTITUDE CHANGE: There should be a change in attitude towards handling
patients, says Dr. Jacob Roy, Chairman of Alzheimer's and Related Disorders
Society of India. - PHOTO: K. ANANTHAN
national chairman of ARDSI,
the campaign is for the
support.
What are the measures
adopted in creating facilities
for Alzheimer's disease
patients?
The facilities that ARDSI is
providing in taking care of
patients with dementia are on
par with what is happening have also been identified. We
elsewhere in the developed have already started one in
world. Pune. Nagpur, Varanasi,
Because we are a Lucknow, Manipur and
developing country, we Sri nagar are among those we
should not dilute standards. will be starting soon. We are
Ideas were taken from the going to raise this issue in
West, but are implemented Parliament and to get
taking care of our cultural Ministry of Health and Social
ethos. So far 14 chapters of Welfare to fund the
ARDSI have been started programmes.
across India. Ten new places We need to provide more
services for which
Governmental support and
recognition is necessary.
Help to set up memory clinics
in all districts, to improve
diagnosis, more services like
day care, home care, 24-hour
residential care, information
centre, training programme
for doctors and more
research programmes are the
kind of things for which we
want support from the
Government.
What kind of work does ADI
do?
ADI is not a medical
organization, but it has
individuals from medical
fraternity as well as social
organisations. It is an
umbrella organisation for
societies formed by care
givers of patients. I have been
part oftheADI for alongtime
as it was a personal
experience of my father being
affected by it that led me to
search for what could be
done.
As the chairman, the
agenda will be to extend the
reach of ADI where there is
hardly anything happening
like in Asian and African
countries. The. first step will
be to engage world
governments to recognise
dementia and to encourage
societies to bring out
country-specific reports.
What kind of work has ARDSI
done?
We started the first ARDSI
chapter in Kerala as a result
of the Kochi conference in
1998, the first such meeting of
ADI that was held outside a
developed country. It
resulted in forming a group
dedicated to research -
primarily to developing
research and epidemiological
studies where hardly any
work was done. ADI helped
improve the scenario in
research in the country from
where very little data was
coming in.
It also led to the formation
of the Asia-specific regional
group of ADI and India was
the first to join in. I had been
associated with ADI as the
vice chairman and was also
working in the elected board
of AD!. The headquarters of
ARDSI was shifted from
Kunnamkulam (where I'm
working in a hospital) in
Kerala to New Delhi for
better interaction with the
governments.
Though awareness
programmes on dementia
were on for along time,
don't you think films based
on the issue helped in
reaching out to more
people?
The impact of a commercially
successful film can never be
matched. Obviously it had a
profound . impact. One
Thanmatra (in Ualayalam)
and one Black (Hindi) is not
sufficient.
One needs to continue the
efforts. More films and more
activities are required to
reach out to the people.
[Movies should convey]
information about what
needs to be done for the
people affected with
dementia, guidelines for
caregivers, what should be
done and what should not be
done.
There should be a change
in aUi tude towards handling
the patient.

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'Alzheimer's will be on the rise in India'

With the number of elderly people in the country expected to

and become 7.6 crore.

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