The State Government would soon formulate a medical policy for senior citizens suffering from diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer.
The Federation of Senior Citizens’ Associations of Odisha (FSCAO) had recently urged the Department of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) to formulate such a policy.
In a letter to the SSEPD Secretary, the FSCAO had said that according to the 2013 World Alzheimer’s Report, the number of dementia cases would double by 2030 (to 75 million) and triple by 2050 (to 135 million cases).
The letter said there are more than 47.5 million people now suffering from dementia worldwide, of which India accounts for 3.7 million cases with reported diagnosis of dementia. “Alzheimer’s disease is the common cause of dementia contributing to 70 pc of cases,” it stated, adding that the Alzheimer’s is a serious medical condition and has no cure and that a person suffering from the disease needs more help with passage of time.
“It is absolutely necessary to train caregivers to reduce the pain and anguish among the Alzheimer’s,” the federation said.
It added that Odisha lacks proper treatment centres to take care of such patients. “We have few daycare centres and their number needs to be increased to help the huge number of Alzheimer’s patients. Every public hospital should have a daycare centre to treat Alzheimer’s patients along with a memory clinic,” the FSCAO’s letter said.
It urged the SSEPD Department to make available affordable medicines for Alzheimer’s patients and formulate a policy and implement it in partnership with public.