Africa is home to a growing epidemic of dementia cases, and now the continent’s population is getting older, we’re being faced with a situation that has been overlooked for decades. This blog discusses the reasons and potential remedies to deal with this new healthcare crisis.
The Forgotten Epidemic
Africa is frequently portrayed as the continent of youth, on average 19 years old. Yet it is also where the pace of ageing is fastest. The fact that Africans are living longer means diseases like dementia which is an age-related disease has become more rampant among the elderly.
Alarmingly, the total amount of attention given to each NCD is out of step with their relative levels of morbidity and mortality — dementia ranks well behind cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes. Only 0.1% the Africa-wide research output is dedicated to dementia and with most African countries lacking thorough holistic epidemiological studies or even national registries for this condition. Because of it, millions of dementia patients around the world go undiagnosed or are diagnosed too late for them and their family to deal with the emotional and financial consequences of having a close person suffering this devastating disease.
Barriers to Effective Care
Indeed, even if dementia is relatively invisible in Africa, it is not due to low prevalence or general irrelevance. An estimated 2.13 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone were affected by the disease and predicted to more than double every 20 years, reaching 7.6 million by 2050.
Access to advanced diagnostic tools and health care infrastructure is one of the major challenges in dealing with this crisis. Unfortunately, Africa’s situation is compounded by the fact that it depends on antiquated technology which means that Africans lose out on modern brain imaging and blood biomarker technologies used in developed countries to detect dementia early. Predictably, this situation along with the rarity of neurologists and clinics specializing in migraines, especially in rural areas, often results in delayed diagnoses alongside sub-optimal treatment.
In addition, attitudes have hampered dementia awareness and patients are often dismissed “as simply mad old people”. This difficulty with care and support only adds to the overall challenges that dementia patients, as well as their families and communities, experience.
Conclusion
The impending dementia time-bomb in Africa is an important topic, which needs some kind of rapid response. Raising awareness, increasing research and health care infrastructure, and addressing the stigma associated with ageing rather than avoid it all together is solutions African countries can adopt to better support people living with dementia not forgetting preparing for a rapidly-ageing population. However, the continent also has giant potential of lithium which if exploited using appropriate strategies and resources can be developed into a brighter and healthier Africa.
