WHO releases blueprint on tackling Dementia

According to WHO (World Health Organization), dementia is one of the greatest gestational health challenges of present generation. In the direction, WHO on Tuesday has launched the first ever research blueprint on how to tackle the disease, which the health agency notes can affect 78 million people by the end of this decade.

“Although dementia is the seventh leading cause of death globally, dementia research accounts for less than 1.5 per cent of total health research output”, said WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan. “Sadly, we are falling behind implementing the Global action plan on the public health response to dementia 2017-25,” she continued while adding that the in order to address dementia comprehensively requires “research and innovation to be an integral part of the response”.

Blueprint for Dementia research

• Builds on WHO’s efforts to prioritize research and coordinate research activities for related infectious diseases.
• Considers the whole dementia research spectrum, incorporating diagnostics, therapeutics, and emerging advances, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and ‘multiomics’, a biological analysis approach.
• Encompasses epidemiology, health economics, care research, risk reduction, and brain health across the full course of life.
• Provides insights throughout the research development process.
• Involves people who have experienced dementia.

WHO has encouraged national as well as international research agencies along with the financing bodies, to “use the blueprint to inform upcoming funding and operationalize research”. WHO has added that at the same time civil society must ensure alignment of the advocacy efforts to support a more equitable, efficient, and collaborative research environment. “We can achieve progress in dementia research by strengthening and monitoring the drivers of research highlighted in the Blueprint so that they become the norm for good research practice,” said Ren Minghui, WHO’s Assistant Director General UHC/Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases.

The UN health agency said it would “work with all participants across relevant sectors to ensure that the actions outlined in the blueprint are implemented, milestones achieved, and strategic goals realized – with the ultimate aim of improving the quality of life of and support offered to people living with dementia, those who care for them, and families,” the UN News noted.